By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Government has sought additional companies of paramilitary forces for deployment in Garo Hills following deterioration of law and order situation in certain pockets there.
The State Chief Electoral Officer P Naik on Thursday said that the State Government has sought for 91 companies of paramilitary forces for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Earlier, the State Government had sought 73 companies of paramilitary forces to ensure a free and fair election.
“We are concerned about certain pockets of Garo Hills where some incidents took place in the last few days,” he said here on Thursday.
It may be recalled that last week militants entered the Williamnagar Jail premises and shot dead an assistant jailor and a warder.
Not only this, suspected GNLA militants recently, targeted Jonathon Sangma, an Independent candidate contesting from Williamanagar in East Garo Hills, during a public meeting held at Dawa Songgital, 10 km from Williamnagar.
According to Naik, the first batch of 10 companies was dispatched to Garo Hills on Friday.
Due to a spurt in militant activities unleashed by the GNLA in Garo Hills, the region has become more vulnerable as compared to other districts of the State and almost half of the polling stations in the State (1222 out of 2485) have been categorized as either sensitive or hyper sensitive.
