Meghalaya: Dramatic Gains, Lingering Dangers

Feb 27, 2017, at 11:03 pm

On February 25, 2017, a Police team that included newly constituted Special Force (SF)-10 commandos, in an encounter, killed the 'commander-in-chief' of the now-disbanded United Achik Liberation Army (UALA), Singbirth N. Marak aka Norok. X. Momin, at a hideout located inside a forest near Thapa Matronggre village in North Garo Hills District. Marak, along with other cadres of the UALA had surrendered before the Meghalaya Government on June 9, 2016, and had started living a 'normal life' after the group was disbanded. However, he reportedly escaped to the neighboring State of Assam after Meghalaya Police started looking for him following the arrest of one suspect, along with a cache of arms, on November 12, 2016, and surrender of three other suspects on November 13, 2016.These suspects subsequently disclosed that the arms were meant for the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) and they were working under Marak's instructions to provide the weapons to this militant formation.