Meghalaya has seen an almost continuous diminution in trends in violence since 2003, and year 2007 saw a continuation of this salutary decline. Total fatalities in 2007 fell to 18, including four civilians, one member of the security forces and 13 militants. Year 2006 had witnessed 26 killings; 2005, 24; 2004, 47; and 2003, 79.
2006
2007
The banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) remains one of Meghalaya’s most potent insurgent groups, claiming to represent the majority Khasi tribe. During 2007, several HNLC cadres deserted their camps in Bangladesh, and surrendered in Meghalaya. On July 24, 2007, Meghalaya Chief Minister D.D. Lapang presented Julius Dorphang, ‘chairman’ of the outfit, and four of his colleagues, to the media. Dorphang and his associates had reportedly surrendered on July 23, after having crossed over into Indian territory from Bangladesh. Addressing a News Conference in Shillong on July 26, Dorphang indicated a course to push ahead with his pro-Khasi demands while remaining over-ground and shunning violence. As indicated earlier in SAIR , this decision by HNLC’s ‘brain’ and principal organizer, to work within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, has not reduced the group to a spent force. HNLC’s recalcitrant ‘commander-in-chief’, Bobby Marwein, and ‘general secretary’, Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, who have still stayed back in Bangladesh to carry on with the insurrection, are now viewed by Dorphang as the main "stumbling blocks in the peace process." According to an authoritative estimate, between 75 and 100 cadres, including women’s wing members and couriers, remain at the disposal of the active HNLC leadership to carry on with its violent anti-State agenda.
Extortion remains the dominant form of insurgency-related offences witnessed in the State in 2007, and the HNLC has been the principal actor in such drives. Intelligence sources disclosed, in December 2007, that the HNLC has resumed its extortion drive in the coal belt of Borsora in the West Khasi Hills District. The outfit demanded INR 500,000 from coal exporters owning ten or more trucks, while those with five but less than ten trucks were asked to pay INR 250,000 to 300,000. The HNLC has also undertaken an extortion drive against non-tribal businessmen in the Police Bazaar area of the capital, Shillong. Police sources stated, in July 2007, that some businessmen and mobile service providers had received extortion notices from the outfit. Police suspect that top HNLC leaders are using Bangladeshi nationals as couriers to ferry extortion money, since they have lost faith in their own lower rung cadres. Thus, on February 20, 2007, two HNLC cadres, Lord Canning Thongni and Everywell Leroy, who surrendered in capital Shillong, confessed that they used to hand over extortion revenues to Abdus Salam, a Bangladeshi national. Women are also used as agents to pick up the demanded amount from places where the ‘finance wing’ cadres fail to reach. "Even after the arrest of a few women who worked for the HNLC in the past, some women are still helping the outfit in collecting money in Shillong and Dawki in Jaintia Hills," an unnamed senior Police officer disclosed on November 4. He mentioned, further, that before going on an extortion drive, the women make ‘missed calls’ to top HNLC leaders based in Bangladesh, who back them up in various ways to negotiate and secure the amount.
To tide over its dwindling cadre strength, the HNLC appears to have entered into arrangements with groups from neighbouring states to carry on its extortion activities. State Police sources have indicated that the HNLC was being helped by the Tripura-based National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) in Jaintia Hills; the Nagaland-based National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) in West Khasi Hills; and the Assam-based National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in areas of Ri-Bhoi District. The presence of the Manipur-based People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and United National Liberation Front (UNLF), and the Assam-based Black Widow, has also been reported in the State. Apart from the opportunity to extort, Meghalaya’s reputation of being a point for illegal arms deals is also attracting such groups to the state. On October 17, the Meghalaya Police confirmed the presence of arms dealers in capital Shillong. B. K. Dey Sawian, the Director General of Police, said that Shillong, being a cosmopolitan place, has attracted various militant groups to come to purchase arms from the arms dealers in the city.
The Assam-based United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) continues its gun running and extortion activities across the Garo Hills. According to intelligence reports, during the latter half of January, at least 10 to 15 armed ULFA cadres reportedly infiltrated into the East Garo Hills District in two groups from the Krishnai-Agya stretch of the Assam-Meghalaya border, after counter-insurgency operations were launched in the Kamrup and Goalpara Districts of Assam. Meghalaya Police stated that three kilograms of RDX and eight grenades, recovered from ULFA cadre Raju Basumatary on January 19, were part of the arms consignment for the ‘27th battalion’ of the ULFA. Basumatary confessed during interrogation that he had brought RDX and arms from Bangladesh through Garo Hills and then to the Ri-Bhoi District. Addressing the media in New Delhi on August 21, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had stated that the ULFA had set up camps in Meghalaya along the India-Bangladesh border. ULFA was also involved in extortion activities at Phulbari, Garobadha, Mendipathar and other adjoining areas in the West Garo Hills District. Both Army and Border Security Force sources confirmed that the ‘109th battalion’ of ULFA was operating from the Garo Hills, exploiting the border with Bangladesh. On October 28, 2007, ULFA militants opened fire and later looted INR 700,000 from an employee of Virgo Cement Company, Razib Uddin Ahmed, between Jenjal and Anogre areas in the West Garo Hills District.
One relatively new actor augmented the extortion drive in the coal export areas of the State during 2007: the Liberation of Achik Elite Force (LAEF), a Garo group that was formed on July 19, 2005, to fill the vacuum created by the entry of the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) into a cease-fire agreement with the Union Government on July 23, 2004. Apart from three Garo Hills (East, West and South) Districts, the LAEF has also operated in parts of East and West Khasi Hills Districts and Ri Bhoi District. The outfit has reportedly built linkages with NSCN-IM as well its bete noire, the Khaplang faction (NSCN-K). A June 22, 2007, report confirmed its established linkage with the NSCN-K. Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Police stated, in the first week of September, that some of the LAEF cadres had fled to Dimapur in Nagaland and were in constant touch with the NSCN-IM leaders. Shortly after his arrest from Jorabhat, the LAEF 'chief' Peter Marak confessed during interrogation that the NSCN-IM had sold as many as 15 AK-47s, 25 automatic M20 pistols and three powerful Universal Machine Guns, besides over a hundred hand grenades, to the LAEF. Explaining the collaboration between the two groups on extortion, Police Chief Sawian, on October 17, 2007, disclosed that the NSCN-IM had set up a camp in the Balpakram National Park in South Garo Hills, with the help of the LAEF, to extort money from coal traders in the District. As has been the case with other outfits of the region, the LAEF has got the political patronage to sustain its operation. Assam Tribune reported on August 23 that "the LAEF has, since its inception in 2005, been rumoured to be patronised by members of a prominent political party from Meghalaya."
The cease fire and operation of splinter groups has, however, not coincided with the complete withdrawal of the ANVC from the Garo insurgency. The Joint Monitoring Committee meeting, held between representatives of the ANVC, Meghalaya Government and Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the national capital New Delhi on December 12, expressed concern over the continued extortion being carried out by the group, and stressed the need to strictly adhere to ground rules of the cease-fire agreement. On August 17, Bernard Marak, the ‘organising secretary’ of the ANVC, was arrested from Tura in the West Garo Hills District, on charges of extortion. He was later released from Police custody in November. Police disclosed that several complaints had been lodged against Marak, also known as Torik Jangang, by the truckers. Three of his associates arrested on August 16 had also confessed to their involvement in the racket. They had been extracting INR 20 from each truck plying in Tura, posing as members of the truckers' association. Marak was also manning the ‘liaison office’ of the militant group at Tura. Apart from extortion, ANVC militants have also engaged in fratricidal killings. On September 6, Nabat Marak, a cadre of the Achik National Liberation Front Army (ANLFA), was shot dead and his body was buried by suspected ANVC militants at Chidimit village near Songsak in the East Garo Hills District. Police stated that he had deserted from the ANVC in 2005 and later joined the new outfit.
Pakistan's external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is also known to have tried to consolidate its network in Meghalaya, with the wider objective of destabilizing the economy, and has funded terrorist groups by means of circulating fake Indian currency notes in the entire Northeast. On May 14, 2007, the Meghalaya Police is said to have exposed the modus operandi of the ISI in circulating fake currencies in the Rasinagre and Doomdooma villages of the South Garo Hills District, along the India-Bangladesh border. Rasinagre village was the main route through which Bangladeshi nationals sneaked into the neighbouring Indian villages and lured the poor local youth into criminal activities. The ISI had engaged one Sira Mustafa alias Samrat and Kalek Ali from Munsipara of Mymensingh District in Bangladesh to push fake currencies into India, using some 15 youth from Rasinagre for the activity.
The United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), the Assam-based Karbi militant group which had, over the years, targeted the Khasi-Pnar people inhabiting the Assam-Meghalaya border, asked for peace talks over the Block I and Block II areas of the Karbi Anglong District in Assam. The then Meghalaya Chief Minister, J.D. Rymbai, appreciating the offer on January 31, 2007, stated that this was a positive move on the part of the militant group to recognise the Khasi-Pnar people as "sons of the soil of Karbi Anglong," which would help in ending the reign of terror that has afflicted these two areas for the last five years. On February 16, however, State Home Minister R.G. Lyngdoh refused to negotiate with the UPDS and said that the issue of the ‘disputed’ Blocks-1 and II areas would be resolved between the two State Governments.
On the domestic front, the peace process with the HNLC has also not moved any further after its ‘general secretary’, Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, expressed the group’s willingness to engage in negotiations. Addressing the ‘20th raising day’ of the outfit on August 15, 2007, he stated that the group was keen to end bloodshed and was willing to sit for tripartite talks involving both the Union and State Governments.
The Meghalaya Police registered some counter-insurgency successes in year 2007. On August 22, Peter Marak, the LAEF ‘chief’, was killed during an encounter with Police personnel near a militant hideout in a forest near the Kalak village in the East Garo Hills District. Another LAEF cadre was also injured in the encounter. Again, on October 30, five Bangladesh-based HNLC militants, who were trying to kill the group’s surrendered chairman, Julius Dorphang, were shot dead by Police personnel during an encounter at Cleave Colony under Laitumkhrah Police Station in the East Khasi Hills District. The State Police, meanwhile, lost a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), identified as Raymond P. Diengdoh, while neutralising an HNLC hideout and killing a militant in the Paham Umdoh forest near Byrnihat in the Ri-Bhoi District on November 7, 2007. The proscription of the ANVC and HNLC was also extended by the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, on May 23, for another two years, till May 15, 2009, due to their continued anti-national and anti-social activities.
As regards the border fencing, the key deterrent against infiltration and movement of militants to the State from Bangladesh, Governor M. M. Jacob, in his address to the Legislative Assembly on March 12, 2007, stated that a high level Coordination Committee had been set up to look into the grievances of the people protesting against the fencing. He further mentioned that the Government was considering a proposal to set up a Directorate of Infiltration.
The State claims to have a robust ratio of 360 police personnel 100,000 population, as against the national average of 126 claimed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Police density in the State works out at 39.8 per 100 square kilometers of area, a little below the national figure of 44.4. There has been an increase of 0.87 per cent in Police and training expenditure between 2004-05 and 2005-06, well below the national average of 1.18 percent. For modernisation, the State Police has utilised grants worth INR 66 million (Central Government funds: INR 59.4 million; and State Government – INR 6.6 million) out of a total Police modernization expenditure for the country of INR 8.52 billion.
While there is reason for satisfaction to be found in the continuing down ward trend in annual fatalities – the most visible yard stick of the intensity of conflict – Meghalaya is still afflicted by a multiplicity of problems associated with its multiple insurgencies, and these are augmented by the increasing interface between relatively new local outfits and rising intervention by outside militant groups and foreign state agencies. It will, consequently, be more difficult for the state to deal with the emerging nuances of the conflict within the existing counter-insurgency framework in Meghalaya.