Assam Police arrested self-styled chairman of the United Achik Liberation Army (UALA), Novembirth Marak alias Chiindik Marak, from a nursing home in Guwahati late on Saturday night. He has been taken to Tura in Meghalaya where he is wanted in connection with several cases.
A senior officer in the Assam Police said Marak (36) was living in rented accommodation in the Birubari area of Guwahati for the last few months from where he was said to have been running the UALA — based in the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya — over the telephone.
“We got intelligence inputs that he was undergoing surgery in a private nursing home in Guwahati. We closed in on him and picked him up late in the evening (on Saturday),” another officer said on Sunday.
Marak was admitted to the nursing home for a gall bladder operation on June 10.
After his arrest, the police searched his house and recovered a number of incriminating documents. Marak is wanted for several crimes, including murder, kidnap and extortion, among others, in Garo Hills region of Meghalaya.
A former general secretary of the Garo National Liberation Army (GLNA), Marak was first arrested in 2010. He is said to have joined the UALA after his release in November 2013.
The UALA was formed by former Achik National Volunteers Council leader Norok X Momin in February 2013 and comprises about 40 cadres.
Interestingly, on June 2, the UALA had expressed willingness to join peace talks with the government, albeit on the condition that a separate Garoland state be created.
In a statement Marak had said, “We have decided to hold talks with the government for final solution in order to restore everlasting peace and development of Garo hills and for the larger interest of the people.”
Novembirth Marak at the nursing home in Guwahati on Sunday. (Dasarath Deka)
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