EGH blast: Intelligence failure, lack of preparedness resulted in casualty

SHILLONG: Failure of the police and the election machinery to act in time has apparently resulted in the violent incident in East Garo Hills that claimed the life of NCP candidate Jonathone Sangma and three others.
Sources said on Monday that there was complete intelligence failure about the incident, which otherwise should have been contained in time.
In fact, on February 16, one Rick Ashley N Sangma had lodged a complaint that some unknown miscreants were trying to defame and malign the name of Jonathone by way of pasting threat posters with slogans in Garo that read, “Anyone who votes for Jonathone N Sangma will be brought to justice by the gun and the bullet.”
The FIR said the posters were pasted in Chimagre, Nengkhra Darimgre, Damagre, Chisobibra and Samanda Dolwagre in East Garo Hills and that the miscreants were active in the midnight and in the morning between 1 am and 3 pm of February 16 and miscreants suspected to be from the opposition party are trying to create fear psychosis in the minds of people in violation of the model code of conduct.
Similar posters were visible even prior to the 2013 Assembly polls in parts of Williamnagar and the role of the suspected GNLA outfit was pointed out then by Jonathone that resulted in the FIR and subsequent charge-sheet against Deborah Marak who had won the polls.
To a query on the February 16 complaint, Chief Electoral Officer Frederick R Kharkongor told reporters on Monday that after the FIR was lodged, a case was registered by the police and the investigation was on. He also ruled out any complacency on the part of the administration or police.
However, the police, the district administration and the election machinery were caught unaware.
After a series of successes in neutralising the GNLA militants, there was some complacency on the part of the police in the run-up to the polls, sources added.
According to sources, the militants, though less in number had better human intelligence network compared to police as far as the incident in Williamnagar is concerned.
The media had taken note of the delayed response of police and election officials on Sunday night while dealing with the queries of the journalists as they themselves were shell-shocked after the semblance of peace in Garo Hills was shattered.
Sources said both the police and the state election machinery had not expected such a violent incident since militancy was on the downslide in Garo Hills.