This trend is catching up with many militant outfits of the Northeast who are using the method to avoid arrest.
Following the example of the nascent Garo hills-based Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) formed by former Meghalaya police official Champion Sangma, Ulfa has also started sending demand notes through text messages to government officials and businessmen.
A case in point is the complaint of M.D. Arengh, the block development officer of Resubelpara in East Garo Hills, who lodged an FIR that on October 4, he had received a text message demanding Rs 5 lakh from Dipar Rabha, a cadre of Ulfa’s 109 battalion.
East Garo Hills shares its border with Assam and the police have confirmed regular movement of Ulfa militants along the Assam-Meghalaya border after they cross over to Garo hills from Bangladesh.
The police said the main area of operations of Ulfa’s 109 battalion is the entire Garo hills and in the past, Meghalaya police had either shot dead or arrested several Ulfa operatives in Garo hills.
It was first the GNLA which started sending text messages to demand money from the government officials and businessmen.
The GNLA had demanded Rs 60 lakh through a text message from Williamnagar transport official R. Syngkon and the failure on his part to pay the ransom had forced the militants to abduct him on September 30.
The police suspect that the GNLA and Ulfa militants, active in Garo hills, work in tandem to extort money from government officials and businessmen.
Meghalaya home minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh said the home department wanted the aggrieved people to report to the police if they continue to receive demands for money through text messages so that action could be taken.
“We are appealing to the people that if they receive demand notes by any form, they should first report them to the police,” Lyngdoh said.
However, the militants resorting to “text message extortion” is a cause of concern for Meghalaya police.
A senior police official said the militants send text messages to demand money as they consider it as a safe method compared to sending the demand notes through other cadres or messengers, who are likely to get caught by security personnel.
After they send the first text message to any government official or businessman, reminder messages are also sent subsequently.
“Earlier, we tried to verify the text messages demanding money, sent by the militants. This, however, did not give any result as the cellphones through which the text messages were sent belonged to people with fictitious names,” a police official from East Garo Hills said.
Many SIM cards used by the militants were registered either in Nagaland, Manipur or Mizoram.
Concerned over the militants procuring SIM cards in fictitious names from various parts of the Northeast, chief minister Mukul Sangma, in a meeting with the police officials and deputy commissioners in August, had stressed the need to adopt an effective mechanism to check the trend.
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