That a juvenile would have the temerity to plant an IED at a public place and detonate it tells us that societies and families are losing their grip on the youth. When the youth are criminalised so early in life, society should question its ethical mores. Thanks to CCTV cameras, police were able to arrest the criminal. This is the not the first time that CCTV cameras have come to the aid of the police. It reinforces the need for installing CCTV cameras at crowded, vulnerable spaces. Meanwhile, as expected, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has claimed responsibility for the blast as it did on previous occasions. It is learnt that in the last few days, extortion demands had suddenly gone up in the area. This is perhaps to warn the merchants of the area to pay up or face the consequences. This has been the modus operandi of the HNLC.
In the last two years the number of school and college drop-outs has burgeoned and unemployment has reached desperate levels. It is but natural to see a rise in criminal activities. Add to that the spiralling number of drug abusers and the state faces a challenging situation requiring sophisticated levels of policing and intelligence gathering. In the past four years the Home Department under the MDA Government has been pulverized by political patronage in postings and transfers of police personnel. Law enforcers have been used to subvert the law. They facilitated illegal mining and transportation of coal. Key personnel were posted at strategic points to ensure that coal trucks moved without a glitch even while the Government stoutly denied that coal mining was carrying on. But every now and again nature has a way of embarrassing the wrongdoers by making the coal trucks turn turtle in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. Filing of FIRs against coal trucks became more of a joke since these were never followed through. The coal merchants shamelessly revealed they were paying the powers that be Rs 90,000 per truck for seamless passage.
The slap on the face of the already demoralised police force came on August 15, 2021, when firearms were snatched from an elite force – the SF-10 – a force trained at great cost to the state but which have been reduced to amateurs unable to defend their posts. And the criminals who walked away with the firearms were told to surrender them and they would receive a general amnesty – in short no action would be taken against them. After this, the police morale (at least for those that joined with the objective of delivering on their oaths) had sunk to its nadir. It is important for the new DGP to boost up the sagging morale of the team, provided the political masters allow that.
