TURA: Allegations leveled against West Garo Hills Police of using the services of surrendered ultras clandestinely for counter-insurgency operations is out in the open following a disclosure made by a senior cadre on a recent incident in which he was named as an accused.
Former GNLA training instructor, Mingran T Sangma, who was accused by the GNLA outfit and also a section of student and social organizations of being involved in the killing of son of the Oragitok Nokma last month, ‘inadvertently’ mentioned his location at the time of the incident.
In a statement to the local vernacular press on Friday, the former GNLA instructor said he was not involved in the shooting incident since he was only the driver of one of the police vehicles which took part in the operation.
“I accompanied the police on that day but solely for the purpose of driving one of their vehicles. When the firing continued for three long hours I was above Romba Ading village and travelers on the road who saw me may have spread the word of my involvement,” claimed Mingran.
He also claimed that three police vehicles took part in the operation and he had the keys of one of the vehicles. “I did not carry any weapon on that day and only had the keys of the vehicle,” further claimed Mingran while blaming certain organizations of being behind the allegation.
It is worth mentioning that Garo Hills Police has long been accused of using the services of surrendered cadres against their former colleagues in operations which has been questioned by many given that a similar exercise in Assam in the mid 1990s had led to the surrendered ULFAs (SULFAs) calling the shots and public anger on the then government of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta which was ultimately voted out by the electorate over allegations of secret killings.
