Four policemen were killed and two others injured in Meghalaya on Tuesday when tribal militants ambushed a police team in South Garo Hills district bordering Bangladesh, police said.A group of heavily-armed militants of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) attacked the policemen who were proceeding to Baghmara, the headquarters of South Garo Hills, in the Panda reserve forest.The rebels escaped with one AK-47 rifle, two INSAS rifles and one 9mm pistol."Four police personnel, including Sub-Inspector Sombatsing K. Sangma of Rongara police station, were killed and two others were critically injured," Meghalaya Director General of Police Rajiv Metha told IANS over phone.The other police personnel killed were constables Tangseng Arengh, Lenin Ch Marak and Hemingstone Marak.Of the two wounded policemen, Metha said constable Baiti Sangma was critically wounded and had been airlifted to the North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science in Shillong.
Another wounded policeman, Arpon Sangma, has been admitted to the Baghmara hospital.No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack but police believe that the GNLA was to blame.A search operation has been launched by the Meghalaya's Special Weapons and Tactics and the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) commandos to nab the killers."Our men are already on the ground and we are hopeful we'll track them down at the earliest," Mehta said.Home Minister Roshan Warjri condemned the "dastardly and cowardly" attack. "Such acts of cowardice to derail the concerted efforts for building lasting peace and vitiating a hopeful atmosphere will not be accepted and tolerated," she said.
Warjri said the government announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.7.5 lakh each to the next of kin of the policemen killed and Rs.1 lakh to the critically injured Baiti Sangma and Rs.50,000 to Arpon Sangma.The GNLA, fighting for a separate Garoland, is headed by Champion R. Sangma, a former deputy superintendent who deserted Meghalaya Police owing to alleged harassment by his superiors. He floated the GNLA in 2009.Sangma was arrested last year near the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. The government terminated his services in July 2010.The outfit, outlawed by the central government, has an alliance with the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.GNLA rebels, who number around 100, unleashed terror in five districts of Garo Hills in the last five years and killed over 150 people, including security personnel.