TURA: A suspected militant from the Assam-based ULFA was killed in an operation launched by East Garo Hills Police in the Nokrek National Biosphere region on Tuesday afternoon in which a joint training camp of the ULFA and GNLA was also destroyed.
East Garo Hills Police commandos combing the Durama Hills in the Nokrek region located the GNLA-ULFA training camp not far from the Nokrek Peak at around 2:30 pm on Tuesday leading to a heavy exchange of fire from both sides in which one militant was killed.
“The operation began on Monday after we received intelligence reports about the presence of a major training camp housing both ULFA and GNLA militants and our information revealed that as many as 70 cadres from the two outfits were being imparted training,” said East Garo Hills SP Davis Nestell R Marak.
According to the police chief the militants opened fire as soon as the police teams were spotted and in the encounter one militant suspected to belong to the ULFA was killed.
“We believe the militant killed in the encounter may have belonged to the ULFA although he had no identification on his body. There are blood trails leading into the jungles which indicate some more militants may have sustained injuries. Our combing operation is continuing,” said Marak.
Police have recovered a pistol, an IED explosive, an air gun and large quantities of ration and other supplies from the camp
GNLA extortion money intercepted, two cadres nabbed
West Garo Hills Police on Tuesday busted a GNLA hideout in South Garo Hills District after intercepting a courier carrying extortion money in Tura leading to the arrest of two militants of the banned outfit.
Tura police arrested Chandan Singh working for the Tura bonded warehouse, a liquor wholesale distributor, while he was preparing to deliver a sum of money demanded by the GNLA.
The GNLA had reportedly demanded three lakh thirty thousand rupees from the bonded warehouse and Singh was supposed to deliver the money.
“We recovered Rs 30, 000 from Chandan Singh. He was supposed to collect the rest of the amount from another person,” informed district police chief Mukesh Kr Singh.
On his lead, Tura Police went to Sangknigre village, on the Chokpot road, and nabbed Dominic Marak (20) a resident of Dobakol locality of Dobasipara and Sengkal T Sangma (26) of Gangugre.
The arrested duo was supposed to collect the extortion money and deliver it to the GNLA area commander Karak Momin alias Hedeo.
Having obtained the location of the hideout of the GNLA commander, West Garo Hills Police entered the South Garo Hills border into Sangknigre area of Chokpot region.
The police team raided Dapgre village, near Sangknigre, but were fired upon by a GNLA sentry keeping watch from a house on the far corner of the village leading to an exchange of fire before the militants escaped into the forests.
“GNLA commander Hedeo was in the last house but escaped since we had to restrain our firing due to the presence of innocent villagers in the vicinity of the encounter,” said Singh.
