Tura, June 23: Top Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) cadre Ajan Momin alias Jimmy managed to escape, along with five others, while one was killed when security forces stormed their hideout in Meghalaya’s East Garo Hills today.
In the gun battle which lasted for nearly 20 minutes, one GNLA cadre was killed and one was arrested. He is identified as Pisto Sangma. Police have also arrested Jimmy’s girl friend, who was along with the group. The cadre, who was killed, has been identified as Cheman Momin.
The girl has identified herself to be area commander Jimmy’s girl friend. Around 10 pm yesterday, East Garo Hills police, along with personnel from Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) began its operation to located the outfit’s hideout at Mikilsimgre village, about 19 km from Williamnagar.
At least seven cadres were taking shelter at the “temporary hideout”. East Garo Hills SP, Davies Marak said, “Based on our inputs that area commander was taking shelter at Mikilsimgre village, we launched our operation yesterday late evening. We managed to reach the spot at around 5 am, it was raining and the sentry Piston Sangma was sleeping.
We arrested him and he guided us to the hideout, which was roughly 15 meters away from the sentry point”. The police chief told this correspondent that security forces waited near the three huts for about 10 – 15 minutes, which were their “temporary hideout” and cordoned off the area.
“A cadre came out and fired at the security forces after our wait, we retaliated and managed to gun him down. Our firing continued for about 15-20 minutes and Jimmy along with five others managed to escape. We are sure that three of them have sustained injuries. However, we could
not confirm whether Jimmy has sustained any injuries or not”, said Marak.
He added, “It was a remote location far away from the neighbouring village. We continued our operation and return back to Williamnagar around 4:30 pm today”.
Police have recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition, which included 1 AK-56 with 6 magazines, 2 pistol 7.65 mm caliber with 3 magazines, 19 live wire, STBL gun with 8 live cartridge, 1 highly explosive grenade, 3 wireless set, IEDs, gelantine wax, one plastic containing explosive substance, 160 live ammunition of AKs, 7 live ammunition of .22 pistol, 28 empty case of AKs, one round seal of
GNLA, one stamp of GNLA finance secretary, 4 mobile handsets, timer device, ID cards, GNLA badge and GNLA camouflage.
The two ID cards belonged to Jimmy and one of Werong D Sangma and Banchrang A. Sangma. The outfit is active in East, West and South Garo Hills of Meghalaya.(SP News)
