Shillong, June 5 (IANS) Meghalaya Home Minister Roshan Warjri Thursday assured severest punishment to the GNLA rebels involved in the coldblooded murder of a tribal Garo woman in front of her children after she resisted their rape bid.
Following the killing, security forces Thursday launched a massive crackdown on the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) camp two days after members of the outlawed outfit shot Josbina Sangma dead.
"It is a shameful act and I condemned the incident in the strongest terms. I have assured the family members of the victims that the guilty should get the severest punishment," Warjri told IANS after meeting the victim's family in remote Rajaronggat village in South Garo Hills district.
"All efforts are being made to nab the perpetrators to ensure justice to the victim and especially to her husband and her four children who are in a state of trauma. I have also directed the district authorities to provide all possible assistance and especially to counsel the traumatized family," she added.
Warjri, accompanied by Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order Y.C.Modi and other senior government officials, also reviewed the security situation in the insurgency-ravaged district, bordering Bangladesh.
"The combing operation to flush out the rebels in Garo Hills will continue. Additional reinforcement has been rushed to the region and we are expecting another 10 companies of central paramilitary forces to be dispatched," said the minister.
The GNLA has claimed responsibility over the cold blooded murder, alleging that the mother of the four children was a "police informant".
"The GNLA has verified and confirmed that woman was the police source and she was responsible for the death of our training instructor Kram. A group of cadres were on a mission to eliminate this woman. She fled away but on fateful day she came back and got executed. The GNLA shall never spare anyone if he or she is responsible for the death of our cadres," said the outfit's political affairs secretary Bikdot Nikjang Marak.
The GNLA, one of five Garo rebel groups fighting for a separate Garoland in western Meghalaya, is headed by police officer-turned-rogue Champion R. Sangma, who is presently lodged in Shillong Jail after he was arrested from the India-Bangladesh border last year.
The GNLA, which has over 100 rebels, including a few women cadres, operates in East Garo Hills, West Garo Hills and South Garo Hills districts.