SHILLONG: The surrendered rebels have narrated the sequence of events that unfolded leading to the death of their chief Sohan D Shira at the hands of SF-10 commandos. They claimed that he had been caught off guard while the rest of his gunmen were still scaling uphill to his location.
“I was told to stay put at the place he was taking refuge while they all went down to have a bath. Sohan was the first to finish his bath and come up to his hideout and I was asked to move away to a distance to keep guard when suddenly shots were fired from the jungle towards him,” said Timbil Ch Marak alias Churik who was Sohan’s bodyguard.
He feigned ignorance about how many shots were fired but believed the firing came from the rear side.
“There was no exchange of fire. The firing was only from the police side because the rest of the GNLA men who were coming up the hill started to descend and flee on hearing the gunshots,” recalled Churik.
However, Meghalaya police downplayed the claim of Churik maintaining that there was an exchange of fire leading to the death of the GNLA chief.
Another senior cadre Rahul S Sangma alias Nikam denied they were part of the ambush party that had targeted the convoy of NCP candidate Jonathone Sangma claiming they were asked to stay put in the hideout.
“On the night of the attack on Jonathone Sangma, Sohan along with Dristi Rajkhowa and another ULFA cadre had left us behind and gone out. They returned the same night and only later we came to know about the IED blast,” claims Nikam.