Shillong: The Meghalaya Police has arrested 11 cadres including the leader of the newly formed militant outfit, A’Chik Nationalist Socialist Council (ANSC) and seized two single barrel guns and one rusted 9 mm pistol from their possession.
The 11 cadres were nabbed in a series of counter-insurgency operations conducted in different districts of Garo Hills over the past one week following the arrest of ANSC Chairman Chekam Ch Sangma from Tura on September 25, Vivekanand Singh, the district police chief of West Garo Hills said.
During interrogation, Singh said that Sangma admitted that he has formed ANSC along with approximately 25-30 other like minded persons.
“They are in the process of drafting the constitution and collecting weapons to start their activities like kidnapping, extortion etc. The recruitment and training of cadres is scheduled to start after procuring sufficient numbers of weapons,” the police official said.
Singh said the arrested militants have admitted to be involved in these cases as well as illegal weapon smuggling and multiple cases of vehicle theft in Garo Hills.
“Moreover, they have also planned to form one NGO with the name AKMA and planned to extort money in the name of NGÔ inorder to finance for the militant outfit,” he said.
Singh said 15-20 more unknown persons are suspected to be members of the outfit and efforts are on to identify and apprehend them.
A case has been registered against the outfit under the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and further investigations are on.
