Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has been recruiting non-tribal "criminals" to entice non-tribal businessmen from Assam to kidnap them for ransom, Meghalaya police today said.
One of the recent inductee is Ali, a cook at Thapa Police Camp who had decamped with a self-loading rifle, Inspector General of Police (Operations) G H P Raju said.
He said Ali, who joined GNLA, was useful to the outfit as he used to entice unsuspecting businessmen from Assam, who came to buy betelnuts, broomsticks and other agricultural produces, and then kidnapped them for ransom.
At least three such businessmen from Assam's Goalpara district have been kidnapped in the recent past in the same manner, Raju said.
The Meghalaya police also released a photograph of Ali posing with the self-loading rifle. The police claimed Ali was an active member of the GNLA.
Although two other older militant outfits in the Garo Hills region have signed a peace pact with the central and state governments, the GNLA was yet to respond.
The GNLA is an outlawed militant outfit co-founded by a senior police deserter Champion Sangma and Sohan D Shira, a militant, in 2010.
The outfit is active in all the five districts in the Garo Hills region and is involved in kidnapping, extortion and killing of both civilians and security forces.
