Shillong, May 19 (Inditop.com) Security forces Wednesday busted a training camp of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) in Meghalaya and recovered arms and ammunition, a top police officer said.
“A special operation team backed by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) raided the GNLA’s training camp inside Durama hill range,” Superintendent of Police Dalton P. Marak told Inditop.
However, no militant was arrested in the early morning raid.
The Durama hill range is located in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hill district, about 350 km west of state capital Shillong.
“There was an exchange of fire between security forces and heavily armed militants but they escaped due to the thick vegetation. But they left some of their weapons behind,” Marak said.
A machine gun, an Uzi sub-machine gun, grenades, bombs, a laptop and incriminating documents were recovered from the GNLA camp.
The GNLA, which is fighting for a ‘sovereign Garoland’ in the western area of Meghalaya, is headed by Champion R. Sangma, a policeman-turned-rogue whose cadres are deserters, mostly from the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) and the Liberation of Achik Elite Force (LAEF).
On Tuesday, the Meghalaya Police unearthed a mobile phone SIM card racket spread across Manipur and Nagaland based on the disclosures of arrested GNLA militant leader Novembirth Marak.
Novembirth, founder and general secretary of GNLA, was arrested from the Siliguri railway station in West Bengal Saturday, dealing a blow to the group’s network.
The racket was unearthed at Tura town in West Garo Hill. “We have detained four agents of different mobile companies for questioning,” he said.
According to Novembirth, the mobile phone agents operating in Tura arranged for pre-paid SIM cards from Dimapur in Nagaland and Manipur.
“They bring registered pre-paid SIM cards from Dimapur and Manipur and sell them to people, violating all telecom norms,” Marak said.
The agents had demanded extortion money from various people through mobile text messages ranging from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.1 crore.
The GNLA had made these extortion demands on politicians, petrol pump owners, coal dealers and businessmen in the coal-rich districts.
A former minister in the previous D.D. Lapang ministry and a retired inspector general of police were among those who got extortion demands.
The GNLA, a nascent militant outfit operating in three Garo Hill districts, has links with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the NDFB.
