Probe on nexus with Garo outfit

Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma addresses reporters in Shillong on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos
Shillong, July 20: A probe by the Meghalaya government is on to ascertain whether politicians are “patronising” the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) while the government is also examining the possibility of asking the Centre to declare the outfit as a proscribed group.
Close on the heels of the GNLA threat to detonate explosives if combing operations against the outfit were not withdrawn, chief minister Mukul Sangma said, “It would be disastrous if any sympathiser is found hand-in-glove with the group.”
He said the outfit’s warning to carry out serial blasts in Shillong, Tura, Williamnagar and Baghmara was an offshoot of the “heat” the militants are feeling from the ongoing counter-insurgency operations carried out by security forces.
The state government had sought the help of commandos of the elite Combat Battalion for Resolute Action commandos and BSF personnel to flush out militants from the Garo hills.
The self-styled “commander-in-chief” of the GNLA, Sohan D. Shira, had on Sunday threatened to detonate explosives in Khyndailad (Police Bazaar) and Iewduh (Burra Bazaar) in Shillong, Tura market in West Garo Hills, Williamnagar market in East Garo Hills and Baghmara market in South Garo Hills if the ongoing combing operations were not called off immediately.
To a question on whether the government was contemplating to ask the Centre to ban the GNLA, Sangma said the issue was being examined.
“We are still examining the activities and the threat from the GNLA before recommending to the Centre to ban the outfit,” Sangma said.
Questioning the credentials of those who are in the GNLA, the chief minister said, “We cannot eulogise them. Most of those who had joined the outfit are deserters from the erstwhile Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) and the police.”
On the outfit’s self-styled chairman, Champion R. Sangma, a former deputy superintendent of police, Sangma said, “His (Champion’s) track record while he was still serving in the police department was bad.”
“They indulge in activities like killing, kidnapping and extortion which make them criminals,” he said.
The chief minister said, “What issues do they (GNLA) want to discuss? They are justifying their demand (statehood) in order to spread their illegal activities.”
He said the statehood issue couldn’t be taken up through the barrel of the gun. “The most powerful weapon today to take up issues is non-violence,” Sangma said.
On the ANVC’s demand for an autonomous body on the lines of the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Council, Sangma said the government was examining the matter.