An alert has been sounded in Garo Hills region of Meghalaya and in Assam following reports of infiltration of five suspected terrorists from Bangladesh.
South Garo Hills district Superintendent of Police Anand Mishra said this on Thursday while adding that the police have sounded an alert in all the police stations and outposts in the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya, particularly considering the recent terrorist attack in Bangladesh.
Narrating the incident, the SP said that a police team had gone to Kanai village located on the Indo-Bangladesh border in South Garo Hills after being informed by the local people about infiltration of some suspected terrorists into Indian side from Bangladesh. “The villagers told us that on July 5, seven youth with large bags arrived in the village and asked a few villagers about the road that leads to Guwahati in Assam,” he said.
“The youth’s activities led to suspicion among the villagers and they started asking them about their identities. As the villagers started asking questions, two of the youths ran back towards the border. The villagers also chased them till they disappeared in the nearby jungle,” Mishra said, while adding that when the villagers came back to the village, the five other youth had also disappeared.
“The police are trying to verify the incident. This could be rumour also but we are not taking any chances and an alert has been sounded in all the districts in Garo Hills region of the State. We have also alerted our counterparts in Assam so that adequate measures can be taken up to prevent any subversive activities,” said the SP.
Assam Director General of Police Mukesh Sahai said that the state police have been put on alert, particularly after the recent terrorist attack in Dhaka.
“We have heard about some incidents of infiltration of some youth from South Garo Hills region of Meghalaya. There is no confirmation so far on this and the police are trying to verify the reports,” Sahai said.
It may be mentioned here that militant outfits like the Ulfa, NDFB, GNlA, ANVC and HNlC had extensively used the thick contiguous forest in South Garo Hills district of Meghalaya with Bangladesh as corridor to sneak over to Bangladesh when they used to have camps in Bangladesh.