Meghalaya Cong leader writes to Sonia on militant threat

Claiming that he and his party workers have got threats from militants, a Congress legislator in Meghalaya has dispatched a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention.

Saidullah Nongrum, MLA from Rajabala constituency in Garo Hills and political secretary to Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, faxed the letter yesterday to Gandhi requesting immediate intervention from her end.

"I would like to inform you that recently one militant outfit from Garo Hills (Garo National Liberation Army) have publicly threatened me and my workers through the print media. The matter is serious which needs immediate intervention from your end so that we as legislators are not at stake while performing our duties as entrusted to us," Nongrum said in his letter.

He enclosed with the letter, copy of which was made available to the media on Friday, a news report published in a local daily which said that the GNLA has threatened to carry out blasts in some places of Garo Hills, including Nongrum's constituency.

Few months back, there were reports about some Congress MLAs having got threatening sms' from the GNLA which warned them of dire consequences if the operations against the outfit continued.

The GNLA, floated by a deserter Deputy Superintendent of Meghalaya Police, is the most active militant group in Meghalaya at present and has been blamed for rampant extortion in the Garo hills belt.

The outfit, claiming to be fighting for an independent Garoland, had also carried out a number of kidnappings over the last couple of months and killed policemen and civilians.