It’s barely a month since a four year old girl from Nongrah disappeared and was later found dead in the same locality. This time a 7-year old boy from the same locality also disappears and his dead body is located at Mawpat forest. This is a new phenomenon and a worrying one since there are hardly any leads and motives for the murders. To lay the blame solely on the Police Department for failing to prevent these mysterious murders is to shelve community and societal responsibility. Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home, Prestone Tynsong has rightly called on parents and families to take better care of their children to prevent such sad occurrences. Meghalaya like other tribal states has a robust local governance system – the Dorbar Shnong which is a body selected by the residents of the village/locality to ensure that basic facilities are in place and that there is safety and security within the locality. Within a Dorbar Shnong nearly everyone knows everyone else and usually there is a sense of common trust among the residents that problems can be resolved internally through discussions and collaboration.
Whenever there are murmurs of suspicious movements of individuals or groups the entire locality is alerted and adults and youth volunteer to police the locality late into the night. This solidarity is what keeps the residents united in their goal of securing their respective localities. While the Police assist in such circumstances the locality does not rely entirely on them but works in tandem with them. The Seng Samla and Seng Longkmie are usually alert when untoward incidents threaten to derail the peace in any locality/shnong. It may be just a coincidence that Nongrah is facing these mysterious incidents twice in a row but other shnongs need to remain alert against such dangers awaiting innocent children whose lives are cut short leaving behind a trail of sorrows and unresolved fears that prevent closure for grieving parents and relatives.
Undoubtedly the Police Department have a duty to get to the root of these mysterious killings and lay their hands on the murderers at the earliest in order to restore public confidence. While public outrage against the serial murders will die down, public pressure on the Police to get to the root of these murders should remain constant so that such occurrences are nipped in the bud and the murderers found. The motives for such murders can then be ascertained instead of assuming the worst – that tales of the ancestral Thlen ( a blood-feeding python nurtured by its keepers because it brings prosperity to them) begin to take over and the entire society reverts to its fears and suspicions and begins to live on the edge instead of moving ahead towards progress and development. The Khasi society has lived on these horrors and fears for a long time and also turned some of its own people into outcasts for ostensibly rearing the Thlen. These unfounded fears need to be addressed by the State Police by finding the killers of the two children who disappeared and died within a month of each other.
