TURA,NOV 26: Army on Thursday claimed that the two civilians killed in North Garo hills yesterday were because of “mistaken identity”. The killing took place at Konchikol, near Kharkutta around 8:40 pm yesterday, while the army was checking vehicles.
An army release said that on specific information from a source about movement of two Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) cadres on motorcycle on Kharkutta to Khilor route in North Garo hills, they had established a mobile vehicle check post.
The release claimed that when a motorist was signaled to stop, he abnormally accelerated their bike and tried to escape.
“Due to huge back blast and flash, which came out of the silencer and due to the prevailing pitch darkness, it seemed that the motorcyclists had opened fired. The troops retaliated in self-defence, due to which the motorcyclists were hit and died on spot”, Defence PRO Lieutenant Colonel Suneet Newton claimed.
The two has been identified as – Sweetbirth D. Marak, 30 and Alphius Momin, 35. Both hailed from Rajasimla village in North Garo hills. Momin was a teacher in a local school.
The army release also narrated the turn of events.
The army tried to justify the incident by saying that the incident primarily occurred due to non-adherence to existing security instruction by the motorcycle borne civilians. “A detailed investigation is being done by the army authorities on issues related to the incident”, said Newton in a statement.
He also said that the due to heightened level of terrorism that led to senseless violence, kidnapping for ransom and extortion by the terrorist groups in the area the army and the Meghalaya police have to carry out increased vigil in the area.
On Monday, the civil bodies in North Garo hills had staged a massive protest against act of terror by rebel outfits at Kharkutta.-From Our Correspondent
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