By Our Reporter
Shillong: Meghalaya Police on Tuesday made a breakthrough when they managed to detect and defuse a grenade planted underneath a flag pole of the banned Hyniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) at Phot Ja-ud village, about 28 km from Mawkyrwat in South West Khasi Hills district.
The grenade which was planted by the HNLC on Tuesday was concealed near the flag pole on which the outfit unfurled its flag to mark its 25th raising day.
The outfit also put up a sign board at the site warning the local people not to pull down the flag or dismantle the signboard.
As soon as the bomb was discovered, a bomb squad from Shillong rushed to the spot and defused the grenade.
Police, quoting local villagers, informed that some HNLC cadres hoisted the flag after midnight on Tuesday at around 1am and also fired three rounds from their AK-47 rifles.
Meanwhile, Sainkupar Nongtraw, the outfit’s ‘publicity secretary’ posted a farewell message on his Facebook account for all the cadres who had lost their lives in the struggle and also assured that the outfit would ‘carry on the fight’.
The outfit has called for a bandh from 1 am (Wednesday) to 5 pm to boycott the Independence Day celebrations.
HNLC ready for talks
On its 25th Raising Day on Tuesday, the HNLC said it was ready to come forward for dialogue with the Government.
“We would stick with our demands which we had submitted to the Centre in 2004,” HNLC general secretary Cheristerfield Thangkhiew said in a statement.
Maintaining that the Government should be serious while holding the dialogue, Thangkhiew said they would not hesitate to take up arms again if there is any lack of seriousness on the part of the Government to address the issues raised by the outfit.
He also made it clear that the outfit would not tolerate anyone sympathizing with the surrendered members of the outfit.