TURA: Dozens of live ammunition meant for use in a sniper rifle and belonging to the proscribed GNLA have been recovered from deep inside Nengmandalgre forests, across Simsang River, in East Garo Hills on Thursday.
“We acted on source information about the burial of ammunition in the forests and conducted a search which led to the recovery of 87 rounds of 7.71 mm ammunition used in a sniper rifle. The consignment belonged to (Late) GNLA chief, Sohan D Shira,” informed East Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Bruno A Sangma, and added that a search is currently on to check for more hidden cache of arms and ammunition in the forests.
According to police, Late Sohan D Shira had buried weapons and ammunition in multiple places in the vast Durama hills range, across Simsang River overlooking the town of Williamnagar, for years during the height of the insurgency problem in Garo Hills.
The dreaded militant leader, who orchestrated an IED attack that killed a contesting candidate in the 2018 assembly elections to Williamnagar Constituency, was subsequently shot dead in a police raid in his jungle hideout, days later.
Following his death, multiple search operations had yielded recoveries but many more remain untraced.
A ragtag group of former militants had also made a failed attempt to search for the hidden cache of arms and even interrogated a former associate of Shira.
