Meghalaya: Militants fire at cop's residence, no casualty

Shillong, Dec 5: A senior police officer and his family members had a close shave when armed militants attacked his official residence in Meghalaya’s East Garo Hills district headquarters, police said on Friday.

In a daring attack, militants, suspected to belong to the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), went to the official residence of Additional SP R T G Momin, and fired randomly from AK series rifles damaging the outer walls of the residence last night, SP Davis N R Marak said.

The officer was supervising law and order duty in other areas of the town when the attack took place even as his family members had a narrow escape through the back entry of the house, the official said.

"The armed militants had planned to detonate a powerful IED through a remote device as soon as the police teams rushed in but our personnel spotted the device concealed in a plastic bag outside the compound," he told PTI.

The incident took place at around 9 pm when crowds were out on the streets of Williamnagar celebrating the last day of the winter festival organized by the district administration, they said.

The SP said the district police had received inputs of possible attacks at the winter festival but in view of the strict security apparatus, the militants carried on the attack somewhere else.

"Security in Williamnagar was beefed up with frisking of vehicles and commuters making it difficult for the militants to target the festival site and this could have provoked the attack at the officer’s house," the SP said.

More than ten empty shells and three live rounds were recovered from the spot where the militants fired on the police officer’s quarters. The militants also left behind a five kg IED bomb near the main gate.

Preliminary investigation by police indicated that three militants had come with an intention to create a major havoc in the town, Marak said.

PTI