TURA: After a lull of close to two months on the surrender front, the deputy commander of the banned GNLA’s finance wing surrendered to police at Williamnagar late on Wednesday afternoon. He did not deposit any weapons.
The self-styled sergeant of the GNLA, Ninja M. Sangma (23), hailed from Sobokgre village in the Durama Hills located across the Simsang and Williamnagar. He was known in the outfit as Megam. He is one of the remaining senior cadres of the outfit and had undergone arms training as part of the third batch of recruits after the formation of the outfit.
Sangma, who was the number two head of the outfit’s finance command based in Nangalbibra region that is tasked with revenue collection, is wanted for his role in several cases perpetrated by the GNLA and served in the outfit’s commands of South Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills.
He sought leave from finance commander Kamdak on the pretext of visiting home and instead gave himself up before East Garo Hills police chief Davis Nestell R. Marak.
Sangma has informed police that the finance unit comprised seven cadres prior to his surrender and has now been further reduced to five men after another member disappeared a few weeks ago apparently to form his own group.
Outfit weakens
The series of surrenders of GNLA cadres has weakened the outfit that is left with barely 30 armed rebels in its current position.
Once a formidable militant force that was feared by other rebel groups and was a worrisome menace to the state police as it had established command centres in every district of Garo Hills as well as neighbouring West Khasi Hills, the GNLA is no longer a picture of its past.
The latest surrender by deputy commander Megam reveals that there are only 27 GNLA cadres under the leadership of its chief Sohan D Shira.
Sohan is said to be moving around somewhere in East Garo Hills region, Megam said. This is in contrast to claims by intelligence agencies that the elusive militant leader had fled to Bangladesh.
One worrying factor for the security forces is the continued support received by Sohan from the banned ULFA-Independent outfit of Assam led by Paresh Barua. The ULFA(I) chief operates from Myanmar and has a substantial number of cadres in neighbouring Assam as well as in pocket boroughs of the GNLA inside Garo Hills.
Five armed ULFA cadres were there with Sohan D. Shira inside Garo Hills, revealed Megam after his surrender to police at Williamnagar on Wednesday afternoon.
Since the formation of GNLA in 2009, it had been the ULFA outfit that had provided it with logistics support. From weapons to armed training of fresh recruits, the GNLA had benefitted from the help given by the Assam outfit that in turn was looking for safe havens inside the vast dense forests of Garo Hills to escape police operations in the neighbouring state.
The vast armoury of GNLA once consisted of several dozen RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) believed to have been given by the ULFA.
