ANVC suffers another split

Seven members of the Achik National Volunteer Council, an armed insurgent group which has signed peace deal with the Centre, deserted the camps recently and formed a new militant outfit.
Led by the camp-in charge Balsrang, the cadres left their designated camp and liaison office at Tura youth hostel in the Garo Hills region last week and decamped with five automatic assault rifles, seven pistols, 10 hand grenades and four hundred rounds of ammunition from the ANVC armoury, according to delayed information received here.
Balsrang rang up a newspapers office in Tura to say that they had formed another armed group in protest against the government's lackadaisical approach to the needs and requirements of the cadres lodged in the camp and the leadership for not responding accordingly.

"The government has not given us our stipend for the last eight months and have abandoned us. We were not allowed to go and visit our loved ones back home," Balsrang alleged.
This is the third incident of desertion reported from the ANVC camp at Tura.
In 2009, Sohan D Shira, the GNLA founding leader left the camp to form the new outfit along with a police Dy SP Champion R Sangma.

Last year, ANVC spokesperson Rimpu Marak alias Torik Jangning left the group with another militant commander known as Mukosh Marak to form the ANVC-Breakaway (ANVC-B).
Meanwhile, a senior home official said he is yet to receive a report from the officials concerned in the district before the government can take any action in this regard.

West Garo Hill District Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi said that the splinter group would add to the list of armed groups in the Garo Hills region that regularly broke law.