SHILLONG, June 13: The police in the state have launched a massive crackdown on the members of proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC).
Sources from the Home Department told The Shillong Times on Thursday that a lot of activities will take place as regards police actions in the coming weeks and months.
An official of the department said a sleeper cell of the outfit was busted in Ri-Bhoi district recently but there are many others which are still active and surviving on extortion within the state. But things will change in the next six months, the official added.
“A massive crackdown is on. If it continues the same way, there will be changes in the next six months,” the official said, adding that the Home Department does not consider them as sleeper cells as they are active and indulging in extortion activities.
The official also said that some arrests made recently gave them something concrete to work on. He said they cannot hide as that era is gone.
Given intelligence reports, the official said the HNLC does not have significant manpower and firepower.
According to the official, the outfit does not have even a single senior, management person, or trained cadets working from within the state but rookies, and all that they do is hire vulnerable addicts for a meagre amount of Rs 10,000 to carry out IED blasts.
“They could trigger some IED blasts in the past as explosives are found in abundance due to mining. But things are in place now as the police have upped their game,” the official said.
The official further said that the HNLC is more or less finished but people are still scared and give in to extortion demands which, in many cases, have also turned out to be done by the miscreants in the guise of the outfit.
Talking about once militancy-hit Garo Hills region, the official said the era of militancy is gone. The outfits could earlier hide in the jungles but now with the advancement of technology, they cannot do it anymore, the official said.
“After the GNLA was wiped out in 2017, a lot of kidnappings took place in Garo Hills, but they could not collect ransom in a single case. This is due to technological interventions and the work of the police,” the official added.
