SHILLONG, Aug 13: The banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) is using drug addicts and other delinquents for subversive activities, Meghalaya police chief R. Chandranathan said on Friday.
He also said the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in East Jaintia Hills district headquarters Khliehriat and Shillong’s Laitumkhrah were made crudely with gelatine.
“Gelatine was used in both the explosives. The Khliehriat one was 7.9 kg while the one in Laitumkhrah was more than 1 kg,” the Director-General of Police said.
He said the government is seized of the fact that gelatine is easily available and taking remedial measures.
The DGP said a few overground workers of HNLC were being interrogated but the police found that one Ranjit Kumar who lit the fuse of the IED in Khliehriat was a drug addict. Ten people were arrested in connection with this blast.
“The employment of drug addicts and delinquent elements to carry out operations the cadres would do earlier is a serious matter,” Chandranathan said.
He said the police have identified about 30 overground workers of the HNLC, which has 16 members in Bangladesh.
Asked about the threat from the overground workers, the DGP said: “We have been trying our best to get to the bottom of the problem. But it is not easy for the police to detect anyone making a bomb and planting it in a public place.”
Society at large has a responsibility to provide inputs, he added.
Chandranathan said the police have not found any evidence of the HNLC collaborating with other insurgent groups.
