Meghalaya police officer joins militant group

Shillong, Mar 19 : A deputy superintendent of police in Meghalaya has gone missing and has allegedly joined the militant Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), a police official said.

Champion R. Sangma was posted as assistant commandant of 2nd Meghalaya Police battalion at Goeragre in the state’s West Garo Hills district when he went missing.

“We have served notice to him for being absent from duty for a very long time. His salary has been stopped,” Director General of Police S.B. Kakati said.

“We are making inquiries about Champion. We are hearing (he has joined a militant outfit) and waiting for the report,” Kakati added.

A senior Garo rebel leader claimed that Champion was now “commander-in-chief” of GNLA, whose cadres are deserters, mostly from the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) and Liberation of Achik Elite Force (LAEF).

Incidentally, LAEF was floated by another deserting policeman, Peter Marak, with the help of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah.

Marak was later killed in a crossfire while he was leading the police to a LAEF camp at Kalak in East Garo Hills Aug 22, 2007.

The GNLA is under the police scanner for serving extortion notes, ranging from Rs.5 lakh to Rs. 1 crore, to petrol pump owners, coal dealers and businessmen in the coal-rich districts of Garo Hills.

A retired inspector general of police was among those who received the extortion note.

“Most of the rank and file of GNLA are mostly those who had deserted our organisation and members of the LAEF,” ANVC spokesman Arist D. Sangma told IANS.

ANVC, a Garo rebel group operating in Garo Hills region, is locked in a ceasefire with the central and state governments till March 31.