SHILLONG: The banned militant outfit Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has threatened to shoot up to 10 non tribal people in a minute with their automatic assault rifle.
Saiñkupar Nongtraw, General secretary cum Publicity secretary, HNLC warned the
police to stop harassing their family members and sympathizers.
“If they do so, we shall fire indiscriminately to non tribals be it beggars, businessmen, the high class or low class. The police should not underestimate us. With an automatic assault rifle we can shoot up to ten non tribal people in a minute. We are serious about it. Do not provoke us,” HNLC said in a statement
Earlier, the banned group maintained that Romeo Lyngdoh was a police informer and he had connection with all the higher ups of the police.
“If that is the case then why didn’t the police arrest him in 2016 when his car was used by our cadres? When he was the owner, how could the police let him off. When the police could arrest youths for simply having links with the HNLC, why didn’t they arrest Romeo? As this was not a small case. IEDs and other assault rifle weapons were recovered. If Romeo was not an informer then why did SOT personnel came to meet him and drink with him,” Nongtraw said.
The HNLC stated that the day their cadres shot him, Romeo was sitting outside and drinking and when he saw their cadres he tried to run and get his 9mm pistol which their cadres had siezed from his possession.
“This unlicensed 9mm pistol was given to him by the police for his defence. A vehicle was also given to him by the police. Romeo was in no way associated to us. Now that he is dead the police have used him and deny that he was their special informer. It is the work of the police to lure youths and insist them to become police informers,” he said.
On the accusation HNLC demanded money from Lyngdoh, HNLC sai, “ Why will we demand money from a police informer knowing that he will inform the police. We are not fools. Before we eliminate anybody we verify the name address and his crime towards our cause. Knowing the nick name Bahlieh is not hard. We had warned prior to the day of attack in the media that we shall eliminate a police informer. After getting information about his credentials and history we decided to issue him death penalty. If this was a case of money then by now so many people would have been killed by us. Why only Bahlieh? “
Asking the police to accept that Bahlieh was an informer and try to compensate his family as they had used him and his services, the HNLC said that denying about him shall make the police department loose more informers as they will realise that after using them, the police will simply put blame on them.
“The police by using Local informers are trying to create a divide among us,” HNLC alleged.
