Sinlung /
14 January 2010

Shillong Haven for NDFB

Police step up vigil in areas with mixed population
File picture of a pistol and documents recovered from the NDFB militants
Shillong, Jan 14 : Police in Meghalaya have stepped up vigil to track militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) who take shelter in localities with a mixed population to carry out abductions and extortion in the state.

On Sunday evening, the police foiled a bid by two suspected NDFB militants and five others to abduct a city trader’s son for ransom and arrested the seven-member gang.

One of the NDFB cadres, identified as Monthosh Daimary, 25, in December last year, rented a house at Bangladesh Colony, a locality with a mixed population, in the Polo area of the city to commit the crime. The other suspected NDFB militant has been identified as Bijay Sugunary. Five others, including two surrendered NDFB militants, Khomtha Daimary and Bipul Narzary, two Tangkhul Nagas, Nickson Khang and R.S. Somiror, and another person identified as Gopal Roy, were part of the gang.

A blank demand note of the Bodo outfit was also recovered from them.

Shillong (city) superintendent of police Claudia Lyngwa said today that the police had faced difficulties in tracking down the militants who were taking shelter amid a population comprising all sections of people in certain localities of the city.

Lyngwa said Bangladeshi Colony in the Fourth Furlong area in Polo had makeshift houses let out for rent at cheap rates. All sections of people, who come from outside the state, including the migrants and militants, take shelter here, making it difficult for the security agencies to find their whereabouts.

The suspected NDFB cadre, Daimary, had also hidden a country-made pistol with six rounds of live ammunition in the rented house as there was no police checking in the locality.

According to Lyngwa, as there was no headman in the Bangladeshi Colony, it was impossible for the police to interact with those responsible to check various crimes.

She said the government should take initiatives to check the antecedents of the people residing in the mixed localities. “We had issued several directives to all the headmen of various localities in Shillong in the past to verify the antecedents of the people who wanted to take rooms in the areas,” Lyngwa said.

In the past, several Northeast militants belonging to KYKL, DHD and NSCN residing in rented accommodations here were also arrested from various localities.

Besides, the mixed localities in and around the capital where the criminal elements take shelter, certain pockets of Ri Bhoi district and Garo hills have also become a safe haven for NDFB militants to carry out their activities freely.

A senior police official today said the intelligence network in Meghalaya would be beefed up to arrest militants taking shelter in various parts of the state.

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