GUWAHATI: Meghalaya Police on Sunday arrested one more member of an gang of suspected Bangladeshi intruders who attacked a villager in South West Khasi Hills district.
The arrested person was identified as Mubarak Hussain. Four other gang members – Mefus Rehman (35), Jangir Alom (25), Meruphur Rahman (32) and Saem Hussain (30) – had been arrested from different parts of the district on Saturday.
The men sustained injuries after being beaten up by villagers. Meruphur Rahman, a constable of the Bangladesh Police, was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The motive behind their intrusion was not known. Superintendent of Police B Jyrwa said the police would interrogate the suspects after obtaining their remand from the court.
The intruders had entered a shop at Rongdangai village in South West Khasi Hills in the early hours of Friday. They held a villager, Balsrang Marak, hostage and took him towards New Rongdangai village.
“While moving, the victim was able to free himself and he ran away to one house in New Rongdangai village and locked the door from inside. However, the miscreants chased and banged the door from outside and fired some rounds,” the SP said.
Later, he added, the family members became frightened and, when they opened the door, the miscreants entered the house and assaulted Marak before leaving the place.
At around 2:15 p.m. on the same day, the police received information from a quarry owner that some armed miscreants had entered his land near Khonjoy village.
The SP said that when a police team reached the site, the miscreants, carrying small arms, started running away. The police asked them to stop and fired two rounds in the air, but they ran into a forested area.
The personnel recovered an axe, a barbed wire cutter, a screwdriver, a small knife, one Bangladesh Police ID card, three wireless handsets, three medical prescriptions of Mahfus Bangladesh, ten Bangladeshi currency notes amounting to 769 Bangladeshi taka, one ₹500 Indian currency note, and three micro explosives, among other items.
On Saturday morning, the locals of Khonjoy B village helped the police apprehend Mefus Rehman. Just hours later, a combined team of the police and the Border Security Force apprehended three more suspects from a forest.