NONGPOH: March 10, 2015 would go down as another black day in the history of the State as four police personnel were brutally killed by the proscribed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) while the cops were performing their duties.
While the State was shocked by the incident, the pain of the bereaved family members knew no bounds.
However, whether the noble sacrifices of these men will be remembered for long is a matter of doubt. Browsing through the official website of Meghalaya Police (www.meghpol.-nic.in) reveals that there is no mention of the names of these police personnel killed in the line of duty.
The official website, however, has a martyr’s gallery which has three links namely Martyr’s Gallery, Roll of Honour and Condolences and Obituaries.
The Roll of Honor gives a list of “Officers and men of the Meghalaya Police who laid down their lives in the fight against insurgency & terrorism 1995 onwards.”
However, it has only 59 names with the last name in the list being (L) R.P. Diengdoh, Dy. SP who laid down his life on November 7, 2007. Ironically, the names of those who sacrificed their lives during counter insurgency operations post 2007 does not feature in the list.
Similarly, in the Martyr’s Gallery, the last entry was made on June 4, 2011 and the link has not been updated to accommodate the names of those who died in the line of duty since then. Whatever may be the reason for the apathy, it need to be rectified at the earliest for the men in uniform need to be encouraged in their battle against the unlawful.
