Meghalaya: End of an Insurgency

Mar 08, 2018, at 06:53 pm

On February 24, 2018, the ‘commander in chief’ of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) Sohan D. Shira was killed in an encounter with commandos of the Meghalaya Special Force-10 at Dobu A’chakpek in East Garo Hills District. Police recovered one Heckler & Koch assault rifle with magazines, gelatin sticks and detonators, among other items, from the encounter site. Meghalaya Director General of Police (DGP) S.B Singh stated that “last night (February 23) we had received information about the probable location of Sohan Shira and Independent faction of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I) ‘commander’ Dristi Rajkhowa and their group in Dobu Anchengbok in Bilwatgre village. Accordingly, we launched an operation at 4am and finally caught up with him in an encounter at around 11:30 am.” According to personnel of SF-10 commandos, who took part in the operation, Sohan was several yards away from his group when an approaching team of commandos came into visual contact with him. He (Sohan) tried to escape by firing a volley of shots from his rifle and the Police commandos returned fire, killing him on the spot.