The demise of Cheristerfield Thangkhiew the former general secretary of the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) in a police encounter on Friday brings to an end an important chapter in the history of militancy in Meghalaya. Thangkhiew was known as the brain behind the outfit. He was the master strategist that gave direction to the movement and it was his orders that were carried out by the military wing of the outfit. When Thangkhiew came overground in October 2018 he made an important statement that he had not ‘surrendered’ but had retired from the HNLC. That statement has wide connotations. Retired people can still be reemployed and they usually find it difficult to leave their old trade behind. It is possible that his expertise was still in use by the remaining batch of the cadres who might be missing the strategic wisdom of the old war horse.
It goes to the credit of the MDA Government that they were able to bring overground a formidable force in the HNLC – its general secretary and also its founder member who had given the best years of his life to the movement. Amongst some of the founder members that Thangkhiew named in his interview in 2018, not a single one has remained with the HNLC except himself. He seemed convinced in the idea of fighting for the “country” which is “Ka Bri U Hynniewtrep” or Khasi-land as understood by the Khasis of yore and which has become the idealism pursued by the disillusioned youth of the early 1990s. In their enthusiasm to prove a point they used all tricks in the book adopted by all terrorist outfits – which is to hit where it hurts the most and let those actions trigger a fear psychosis among the innocent public. Extortion became their only means to procure arms and creating terror was one way of getting compliance from selected targets of extortion. Insurgents don’t believe in the ‘ends and means’ ideology. For them the ends justify the means and they pursue this assiduously. Even killings are condoned to achieve these ends.
Many lives of both civilians and uniformed personnel have been lost in the years between 1994- 2000 when the HNLC was at its peak. The outfit met its toughest challenge in 2000 from a government that meant business and a no-nonsense Home Minister. The HNLC lost steam and that’s when cadres began to surrender. Meghalaya or at least the Khasi-Jaintia part of it has had a peaceful run until the IED blasts that seemed to be warnings that the remnants of the cadres should be taken seriously and that the peace talks should be given importance. The MDA Government should give serious thought to this.
