Amid the criticism the state government has faced following the detonation of an improvised explosive device in Police Bazaar on Sunday evening, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today pledged that his administration will do all it can to ensure that such attacks should not be repeated.
Speaking to the press today, Sangma lauded the police in apprehending the suspected perpetrators within 12 hours of the incident. He added that the authorities are working overtime to ensure that all those involved in the crime are apprehended at the earliest.
“The government will do everything that needs to be done to ensure that justice is done and no other incidents like this should happen in future. The government is very firm on it. Within a few days we will be revealing more information since the police are still investigating,” Sangma said.
The opposition was quick to slam the state government for Sunday’s blast, the third time that the outlawed Hynñiewtrep National Liberation Council has been able to plant an IED in the state capital; the first exploded in Laitumkhrah in August and the second failed to detonate (or was designed as a dud) outside the National People’s Party office in Lachumiere the day the Vice-President of India was visiting Shillong.
The CM, however, defended the government machinery, saying that what the public does not know is that there are several instances where the police foiled planned attacks.
“When we talk of intelligence we get thousands of intelligence inputs every day. It is a massive network of information that flows in and the police and government go through all this information and intel and act accordingly,” Sangma said. “That is how a lot of things are stopped. So, while these kinds of things are happening, nobody realises the kind of intel that has come in and because of it a lot of untoward incidents have been stopped but there are some situations which do happen, which is unfortunate.”
Prevention, not reaction, is what the public are largely concerned about and the Chief Minister sought to reassure the people on this by saying, “We will do everything so that that peace is restored and no such incidents should take place in the future.”
