Militants’ behind jail attack identified

SHILLONG, FEB 3: Williamnagar jail warden Sarai Singh Thabah and assistant jailor Neil Warjri bodies have been sent to their respective families on Sunday after all the necessary postmortem even as the East Garo hills police said that they have been able to identify the ANVC (B) militants who had carried out the attack and killed the two jail officials on Saturday night.

Police have identified the leaders of the attack as Singhberth N. Marak, alias Mork, alias Thengter, and Norkesh Sangma. The duo had been arrested earlier and had spent some time in the Williamnagar Jail. They are currently out on bail. “They were part of the eight-member group which carried out the attack. We have identified the group,” said JFK Marak, the superintendent of police of East Garo Hills. However, the police are yet to make arrest.

Marak also said the attack do not appear have any connection with the ensuing Assembly elections even though certain quarters were of the opinion that the attack was an attempt to instill a sense of fear among the voters. The ANVC (B) had earlier disrupted a meeting of former Meghalaya deputy chief minister and the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) working president Deborah Marak.

The ANVC (B) militants had stormed the Williamnagar jail and shot dead assistant jailor Neil Warjri and seriously injured the warden Sarai Singh Thabah at around 9 pm on Saurday. Thabah was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The bodies of both the jail officials have now been sent to their families in Shillong.

East Garo hills deputy commissioner Vijay Kumar Mantri said Thabah succumbed to the bullet injury at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. “Combing operations by the SWAT and COBRA teams to locate and nab the militants are still going on,” he told this website over phone.

It is learnt that the ANVC (B) militants opened random fire outside the Williamnagar jail. The assistant jailor and the warden rushed out on hearing the noise of the gun shots. On seeing them, the militants fired at both of them, killing Warjri on the spot, and seriously injuring Thabah near the entrance gate to the jail compound.

The militants then fled away. All the jail inmates are said to be secured as none of them got the chance to escape.

The revelation that the attack on Williamnagar jail was orchestrated by the ANVC)B) has surprised many, especially since the group was part of the peace talks that were held between the ANVC, ANVC(B), central and the state governments last month. ANVC (B) chairman Rimpu Marak was part of the ANVC (B) delegation that attended the talks in Shillong. By Our Reporter