A firefight between police personnel and a former militant near the Daldagre locality of Tura led to the death of the latter yesterday evening.
The ex-militant, Robison Marak, was a resident of Tikrikilla. He had earlier been a member of the ASAK and UALA rebel groups that were active between 2014 and 2018. He was allegedly involved in many criminal activities after the groups were disbanded.
“We had received information from credible sources that a group of suspicious people with sophisticated arms were seen near Daldagre,” said West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police, Vivekanand Singh.
Several checkpoints were set up on roads in and on the outskirts of Tura and, at around 7:30pm, a police team stationed near Daldagre noticed a motorbike approaching from the Garobadha-Tura road.
The official version is that, on seeing the police, the rider jumped off the bike and immediately began to fire in the direction of the police. Acting in self-defence, the policemen fired back and killed Marak. He had fired from an AK-56 assault rifle, which was discovered near his body along with a magazine, 19 live rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, five empty 7.62mm cartridges and 20 empty 9mm cartridges.
Singh stated that the gunman was alone when he opened fire.
The body was taken to Tura Civil Hospital for post-mortem and the deceased’s family were informed.
A case has also been registered on the encounter at the Tura Police Station.
