Five militants of the banned Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) surrendered to the Meghalaya police along with huge cache of arms and ammunition today.
The five militants, who were under the command of GNLA 'finance secretary' Rakkam, surrendered before the Director General of Police Rajiv Mehta in the presence of senior police officials.
"The surrender is due to police anti-insurgent operation in Garo Hills and also the important role played by church leaders," Mehta told reporters here and added such cooperation could restore peace in Garo Hills and help return the "misguided" youths to mainstream.
Mehta said the five militants belong to the 4th batch of the outfit and had joined it in 2012. They were trained by ULFA instructors in the general camp at Durama Hills in East Garo Hills.
"They were also trained in preparation of IEDs and were involved in GNLA ambushes and IED attacks on the police besides kidnappings, abduction, extortions in villages," he said.
The five, who hail from South Garo Hills district, have been identified and on surrendering deposited three AK-56 rifles, one carbine, one G-3 rifle, one grenade, one HK magazine, six AK magazines, one Beretta pistol magazine, one G-3 magazine, one carbine magazine and 519 rounds ammunition of AK (421, G-3 (22 nos) and 7.62 mm (76 nos), police said.
One of the surrendered militants named Krewingbirth said the training on preparation of IEDs is conducted in Bangladesh in a camp where there are a number of GNLA ultras as well as from ULFA.
He also claimed that children of the age group of 15 years to 16 years were being forced to join GNLA by its 'commander-in-chief' Sohan D Shira and were being given arms training in the general camp.
