On August 15 while the nation celebrated Independence Day a cloud of gloom hung over Meghalaya, particularly its capital city, Shillong. On August 13, Cherister Thangkhiew, the general secretary and founder member of Meghalaya’s longest running insurgency – the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) founded in 1991 was gunned down in the early morning hours by a police posse. The police team was well prepared for a showdown except that it was an unequal face-off. At dead of night when a man is asleep he would not have his wits him. To be rudely awakened past midnight by a police team can send shock waves down the spine of even a hardened militant. Thangkhiew it is alleged tried to fight back with a knife against armed policemen. They shot at him, ostensibly in private defence whatever that might mean. At such close range the bullet would have caused instant death.
Police claim they have incontrovertible evidence that Thangkhiew was masterminding the series of blasts in East Jaintia Hills beginning December 2020, then July 2021 and then at Laitumkhrah on August 10. The HNLC has proudly claimed to be behind these blasts and used them as a bargaining point for peace talks as opposed to their unconditional surrender. The best option for police would have been to arrest Thangkhiew for questioning. That would have revealed the HNLC ‘s modus operandi. Killing Thangkhiew means silencing him forever. But why?
Thangkhiew’s funeral procession was slated for Sunday, Independence Day. A day before, a call had been given by sundry pressure groups that youth across the city should converge at Mawlai for a black flag demonstration. Hundreds of two wheelers hit the road with shouts of “Long Live HNLC.” This is the first time that a proscribed outfit in Meghalaya was hailed by civil society – the same civil society that had rejected them in 2000 after having seen their crimes of extortion and killings at close quarters. What also was ignoble was the snatching away of arms from a police outpost at Mawkynroh by a few hotheads who then took the vehicle around the city, holding the weapons for public demonstration, while the police ran for cover. After the joyride the masked men set the vehicle ablaze. The rule of law was temporarily suspended on that Black Sunday. It is a dangerous portend and one that does not bode well for the state and its police force. Police morale must be refurbished so that they are in a state of preparedness. Policing should be free from political influence. Police are duty bound to follow the Constitutions not the dictates of the political class.
