16 cadres of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), including an ‘area commander’ and two ‘deputy area commanders’, surrendered to Meghalaya Police on May 4, along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition, reports The Se Read more...
16 cadres of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), including an ‘area commander’ and two ‘deputy area commanders’, surrendered to Meghalaya Police on May 4, along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition, reports The Sentinel. A Police spokesman said among the top GNLA militants who laid down their arms is Philiport D. Shira, the ‘area commander’ of the outfit's northern command - the outfit's most potent fighting unit. "There have been serious internal conflicts within the GNLA after Sohan D. Shira, the military wing ‘chief’, refused to share extortion money with various commands," Philiport told reporters. "The other reason for the entire command to surrender to the authorities was pressure from the general public in the wake of counter-insurgency operations in Garo Hills," he said. Philiport led the group to Shillong from their hideouts in Garo Hills and surrendered before State Home Minister Roshan Warjri and Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Mehta in the presence of senior Police officials at the State's Police headquarters in Shillong. Among those who surrendered were Anurag Sangma alias Mike Aubry, the outfit's spokesman and Serejing alias Kediang N. Sangma. Two of the surrendered cadres - Oprai Asom alias Horinath Rabha (29) and Sengbarth K Marak (30) claimed to be members of the Independent faction of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I). GNLA publicity secretary Anurag S Sangma said they surrendered because the government did not respond to their demand for ceasefire. Anurag also said that the cadres were disillusioned with the outfit's top brass since it has no clear objective and no advice for the cadres. "There has been no contact with Sohan D Shira, the GNLA chief, for the last several months," he said. The militants also deposited a huge cache of weapons including four AK and one INSAS rifles, six pistols, one carbine, a grenade, 484 rounds of ammunition, four handsets, incriminating documents and 19 illegal SIM cards.
This is the largest surrender of GNLA cadres after we launched ‘Operation Hill Storm-3’ against the outfit in the five Districts of Garo Hills. The en-masse surrender by GNLA's northern command indicates that the outfit is losing support base within its ranks and growing frustration, prompting them to lay down arms," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Operations, GHP Raju said. Read less...
Relentless operations by Security Forces (SFs) have decimated rebel outfits like Karbi People's LiberaTiger (KPLT). "Because of Army operations, money is drying up for militants and they are now targeting remote villages for extortion," the source added. Locals, who already suffer from acute poverty and unemployment, are fed up with such atrocities. Last year, locals of Sirajuli village in Sonitpur District overpowered and apprehended a militant. A peaceful assembly election, where the Army helped civil administramaintain order, also showed that the militants' influence has declined.
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In another incident, Army and Kokrajhar Police launched a joint operation and arrested a militant of AntiTalks faction of the National Santhal Liberation Army (NSLAAT), identified as Junas Mardi alias Joyking Mardi from Guruphella village Read more...
In another incident, Army and Kokrajhar Police launched a joint operation and arrested a militant of AntiTalks faction of the National Santhal Liberation Army (NSLAAT), identified as Junas Mardi alias Joyking Mardi from Guruphella village in Kokrajhar District, adds The Shillong Times on May 8. He was involved in numerous cases of extortion, money collection and providing administrative support to the banned outfit. One rifle along with one live round of ammunition was recovered from the terrorist. Read less...
Source:Compiled from news reports and are provisional.