SHILLONG: Police have urged people not to give undue importance to HNLC as it is a weak force.
In the wake of the arrest of Khroo Lamsalanki Pariat and Samir Jolly, the members of Art of Living (AoL) who were scheduled to meet HNLC leaders in Bangladesh for negotiation, the Police Department said on Thursday, “The presence of HNLC in India is nil and any attempt to hold negotiations with them will be like dealing with a defunct organisation and giving unnecessary publicity to anti-national elements.”
Soon after the arrest of the duo on Monday, they were remanded in judicial custody and the lower court is yet to grant police custody.
Concerns have been raised by the Home Department about why AoL was trying to negotiate with the organisation whose strength is totally depleted and is nearly extinct.
The development came at a time when the political parties are preparing for the 2018 elections.
While BJP has distanced itself from the issue, the Congress has used this opportunity to target the saffron party since Pariat is a BJP member.
According to police, HNLC has no presence in India and the effort of AoL seems to be aimed at giving respectability to an organisation against whom police and other security forces, backed by civil society organisations, church leaders and public of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, had waged an incessant battle.
Police sources said with the continued support of the people, the process of neutralising HNLC started in 2003 and later a large number of cadres, including the chairman and current MLA Julius Dorphang and prominent head of self-styled army wing like Harman Pakyntein, had surrendered with the help of civil society organisations and church leaders assisted by the state government.
Police cited the cases of HNLC’s links with NDFB
and ULFA (I) to strengthen itself which, however, was thwarted by the security forces. They informed that HNLC does not have any camp in Chittagong Hill Tracks or anywhere in Bangladesh.
The neighbouring country had also taken steps to neutralise the activities of various militant groups, police added.
The HNLC leaders own some betel nut plantations in Maulvibazar district of Bangladesh and are exploiting six to seven cadres to work as labourers in those plantations, police said, adding that the outfit’s army wing has ceased to exist.
When contacted, a senior police official dealing with the arrest of the two AoL volunteers, declined to comment on the developments and said the matter was under investigation and that law would take its own course.
