Wanted Garo militant and his aide arrested in Assam

Shillong, March 22:  William Sangma, the wanted Garo militant, who have been on the run for the last few months, and his aide were arrested from Bongaigaon district of Assam on Tuesday evening. William Sangma and his aide who is  identified as Niksrang Sangma, a member of his outfit, the A’chik Revolutionary Army (ARA), of Cheran Alda village in East Garo Hills — was caught after a brief chase by security forces on the outskirts of the gas refinery town of Bongaigaon district, about 150km from Tura. On Tuesday, a team of Assam police spotted William in a Ford Figo passing through Tulungir village in Bongaigaon around 5pm in the evening and chased him in which a dramatic turn of events followed when the police soon caught up with William’s vehicle but the rebel abandoned his car and ran towards a crowd. However, the chase was short and William was caught by the people standing who thrashed him and handed William to the police. William later confessed to police that following the shootout with North Garo Hills police in a forest two weeks ago, he was given shelter by NDFB militant Sanjib Basumatary in Kokrajhar town of Assam.  William had organised a rag tag group of men and obtained a handful of guns from the arms smuggling racket in Dimapur and was beginning to pose a potential threat to the government.