A file picture of DSP Raymond P. Diengdoh

Shillong, Nov. 7: A raid on a hideout of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) went horribly wrong for Meghalaya police today with bullets fired by the cornered rebels felling the deputy superintendent of police who was leading the offensive.

The incident came a week after the militant group lost five men in an encounter with the police at Cleve Colony in the heart of Shillong.

Critically wounded in retaliatory firing from inside the hideout at Paham Umdoh forest near Byrnihat, DSP Raymond P. Diengdoh died while being taken to a hospital just across the border with Assam.

A militant too died in the shootout in the forest, about 100km from Shillong.

The inspector-general of the police’s Special Branch, S.B. Singh, said a team led by Diengdoh chose to raid the camp in the wee hours — around 4.30am — in the hope of catching the militants unawares. When the policemen asked the six militants holed up in the camp to surrender, they fired at the raid party.

One of the militants was killed in the shootout that followed and two more were arrested. The rest escaped.

The slain militant was Salin, alias Jockey, from Mawsynram in the East Khasi Hills. His arrested comrades are Sharailang Raiwan and Andy Lyngdoh.

The police said the HNLC team was led by a militant named Arist.

Two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol and some catridges were found at the shootout site.

Chief minister D.D. Lapang, who is in New Delhi, said in a statement from the capital that the people must back the police’s campaign against militancy, alluding to the hue and cry over the encounter in Shillong just over a week ago. Lapang, who holds the home portfolio, is expected to convene a meeting of senior police officials on returning to Meghalaya.

A senior police official said operations against HNLC militants would continue.

The HNLC was formed after a split in the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council, the first tribal militant outfit of Meghalaya, in 1992. It split after a clash of interests between the Khasi and Garo leaders of the group.

Declared a “banned” group on November 16, 2000, the HNLC professes to be fighting for a Khasi homeland bereft of the influence of “outsiders”, who it says are depriving Khasi youths of the fruits of development.

The five militants who were gunned down on October 30 had reportedly entered Meghalaya from Bangladesh to kill the outfit’s former chairman, Julius Dorphang.