By Albert Thyrniang
Before anything else, congratulations to the Meghalaya Police Commando – Special Force (SF) for their success in gunning down Sohan D Shira, Meghalaya’s ‘most wanted terrorist’. It is a commendable achievement, the significance of which will be felt in the near and distant future. The self-proclaimed commander-in-chief of outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was shot dead in a fierce gun battle with security forces at Dobu area of A’chakpek village, East Garo Hills on 24th February in a joint operation of the Garo Hills Police and Meghalaya’s Special Force-10 commandos.
The dreaded militant’s violent end came around around 11:50 am. News of killing spread thick and fast through the social media, WhatsApp and Facebook. The forward and share facilities in these applications reached the news to the world audience in no time. The national print and electronic media picked up the sensational story and flashed the breaking news on TV screens and portal sites. Soon the battered body of the slain insurgent leader, lying near his sophisticated weapon, began to appear in the same social platforms. Apparently the militant supremo, in military camouflage, who had ‘survived’ many a gun battle, was shot several times in the head and the abdomen. He was but a shadow of his former self! He lived by the gun and died by the gun.
No sooner had of the death of the long illusive GNLA co-founder was confirmed, when questions were raised by concerned citizens, though mostly anonymously. Why was he traced just five days after the shocking assassination of Williamnagar NCP candidate, Jonathone Sangma, a former GNLA cadre and three others on February 19 in an IED blast? The GNLA has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Sohan is still the main suspect. Who killed Jonathone and his co-victims? We may never know the killers and the conspirators, if there are any. The wife of Jonathone who had asked the GNLA whether they killed her husband may have to live with the mystery for the rest of her life.
Jonathone Sangma who was an independent candidate from Williamnagar in 2013 had complained of threats to his supporters by underground elements not to vote for him. The investigation led to the police filing charge sheet against Deborah Marak and Tennydard Marak on November 3 that year for alleged criminal conspiracy, undue influence in elections and criminal intimidation. What will happen to this case? Will it remain unsolved for ages? Did the GNLA work for the Social Welfare minister? Will the case that deserves imprisonment of the guilty of up to six months remain in the file forever? Will the investigation, even if handed to the CBI or NIA, unearth the truth?
Allegedly the GNLA had taken an anti-Congress stance in Songsak where the Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma is contesting. Threats of attacks on Congress party workers and a 365 day shutdown were issued through the social media, purportedly by Sohan himself using fake name, if the people of Songsak supported the CM. Rongara and Siju candidates were also intimidated by the outfit, say some reports. Is there any connection between political involvement of GNLA in Songsak and other constituencies and the encounter in Dobu? To an inquiring mind the timing is suspicious.
Why had the former Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) ‘area commander’ for the East Garo Hills survived so long? How did he escape the police dragnet for more than nine years? Was it because of the lack of modern weaponry and logistics on the part of the police? Was it because of the difficult terrain? Was it because of poor intelligence? Were the GNLA superior in arms, intelligence and knowledge of their habitat? And the most pertinent question of all: was it because of political patronage that Sohan and his outfit were to escape the law for nearly a decade? Now that the man is dead the answers to these queries may go with him to the grave.
Uncomfortable questions are also being asked regarding the encounter itself? Why was the hard core C-In-C who carried a Rs 10 lakh bounty on his head gunned down alone? Where were his faithful and trained body guards? Reportedly, Sohan’s well armed bodyguards stay about 1 km away from him. Could the Special Force, with specific information about Sohan’s location have allowed the bodyguards to escape to be able to reach their target man? And hence, did his aides abandon their boss for their own safety?
According to some individuals even the scene of the encounter looks suspicious. Was it tampered with? They have questions of the photographs of the slain militant that went viral after the GNLA chief was gunned down. Lying in a forested hill slope, in one photo two plastic bags were clearly seen near an assault rifle while in other photos the plastics bags are not visible? Were the plastics of any significance? Only expert investigators will be able to tell.
The whole state and particularly Garo hills views the death of the GNLA chief as good news. But the serious allegation of politician-militant nexus will remain a mystery forever. With the death of the man who knew the subject best, the Pandora’s box will never be opened. The influential and the mighty who patronised militancy will go scot free. This is troubling. It would have been ideal had the ‘criminal’ been captured. Had he been arrested he could tell it all in court. Is there a conspiracy to eliminate the hard core rebel so that no one knows the truth?
Reduced to a negligible number, Meghalaya’s most dreaded outfit might have had its final nail in its coffin. Hope the GNLA, formed in 2009 with the objective of ‘sovereign Garoland’, by deserted MPS officer, Pakchara R. Sangma alias Champion (currently in jail) and the deceased, Sohan, partly due to the carelessness and un-watchfulness of the state, will hence forth cease to exist. Hope that with the fall of the former ANVC’s East Garo Hills area commander who had unleashed a reign of terror since 2009, Garo Hills will breathe easy. Hope the death of the accused of more than two-dozen killings, abductions, extortions, bomb blasts and attacks on security forces and civilians for over 2 decades will bring a sense of justice to the numerous victims. Hope the senseless violence and killings, the fear psychosis and insecurity, the ambushes and encounters, the armed conflict and operations will be the things of the past. Hope 1992 will be marked as the beginning and 2018 as the end of militancy in this peace loving, beautiful and charming state. Hope the history of militancy and insurgency has ended and an era of peace and freedom has begun.
Hope the youth will now shun violence and focus on education, skills and jobs. Hope the citizens will have a free environment to work for their livelihood, advancement and progress. Hope the government will now be able to channelize resources to education, health, roads, water, electricity, tourism, promotion of arts, culture, sports, music and the whole lot of creative engagements. Hope the young, the old, the sick, the poor, the landless, the homeless, the jobless get much more attention to live a praiseworthy life. Hope the government will not be distracted anymore by ‘enemies of the state’.
The 2018 election will be remembered as a bloody election. Earlier the stabbing of PN Syiem’s brother in Mawsynram and some minor cases of violence were known. But never in the history of Meghalaya had there been election and party rivalry related deaths! This time two election related violent deaths have taken place within a span of a week. One, an innocent candidate was cold-bloodedly and inhumanly killed while on election trails. A person who stood for what he believed in had to unfortunately pay the ultimate price. A person who dared not to be intimidated by the gun had to make the supreme sacrifice. A father who he decided to fight by the ballot box had to fall victim to the bullets and IED bombs. A complainant against militant intimidation had to be silenced forever. A potential a giant killer had to be brutally killed.
The other death is that of the former GNLA supremo, Sohan D Sohan. While his death, the people of Garo hills hope, will bring lasting peace in the western region of the state yet it is also feared that the mystery of the annoying politico-militant nexus would have died with him. Only the unending questions will remain without answers. Sohan too will go the Fullmoon way.