Tura, Jan 7: The bickering between the Meghalaya government and Achik National Volunteer Council – Breakaway (ANVC-B) took a new turn today when cadres of the Garo rebel group opened fire at a police team, injuring two personnel. The incident took place at the ANVC-B’s main camp at Edenbari near Tura in West Garo Hills district around 2 pm. The police team, four of them, had gone to the camp, apparently for inspection when they came under gunfire.
Some 100 ANVC-B cadres stay in that camp since signing of an interim peace pact with the government in 2012. Chief of the breakaway faction of ANVC Rimpu Marak also stays at the camp and he was present at the time of the incident.
The two injured police personnel have been identified as sub inspector Tarson Sangma and head constable Banai. They were rushed to Tura Civil Hospital.
The incident claimed barely a week after that Garo rebel group claimed that three of its cadres, including two women, went missing while they were coming back to the camp after shopping for the New Year’s feast.
The group also claimed that more cadres were reportedly missing and the outfit’s leadership “was unable to ascertain how many have gone missing between Christmas and New Year as we are unable to make any contacts and we fear the worse”.
“Our cadres were targeted by police when they visited home for Christmas and now these disappearances when we are holed up in our camp are far beyond any legal standpoint,” the ANVC_B had said in a statement a few days back.
The ANVC-B had also claimed that the Meghalaya police was engaging cadres of its parent outfit (ANVC) to eliminate members of the breakaway faction. “We fear the same might have happened to the missing cadres. We had inputs of ANVC being encouraged by the Government to secretly eliminate our cadres including the chairman as the draft peace pact signed makes the role of the breakaway faction more prominent,” it had alleged.
In an emergency advisory, the ANVC.B had asked “all its officers and cadres” to report to the camp before January 7. “This is an emergency call. Those who fail to report will be listed as absconding / deserters and action will be taken as par the organisation law,” it had said in an announcement to the media.
While there were more than 120 cadres in the camp originally, reports indicate that the number has gone down of late. The outfit has so far not reacted to today’s incident.(SP News)
