Five police vehicles torched in Meghalaya's Tura district

At least five police vehicles were set ablaze last night at Goeragre on the outskirts of Tura by unidentified miscreants around midnight.

Goeragre is about 10-kilometers from Tura in the West Garo Hills. Meghalaya police today ordered a high level probe of the incident.

The incident occurred last night, between 11:30 p m to 12 a m. The miscreants escaped.

Police said that unidentified persons targeted the parking lot inside the 2nd battalion headquarters in Goeragre, where five new police Gypsies were parked along with a few a motorcycles and a scooter. All the vehicles were torched.

Following the incident an alarm was sounded and the battalion personnel rushed out of their barracks thinking it to be a militant attack.

The incident occurred very close to the sentry post from the main gate though no alarm was initially raised allowing the arsonists to get away after their act. However, it also led to the suspicion that the arson may have been an inside job though police are currently probing all angles to the incident.

Fire tenders from Rongram, about two kilometers away, rushed to the spot to douse the fire but by the time they got there the entire area was gutted and all the vehicles destroyed.

The sentry on duty was unable to spot the fire until it was too late.

The total amount of damages is expected to cross Rs 30 lakh as all the vehicles gutted were regularly used in operations as well as patrolling.

The lack of CCTVs at the affected area is expected to prove a hindrance to investigations even as police grapples with the question as to why the incident occurred.

-ANI