Editor,
In the wee hours of the morning of the 13th of August, at 3 a.m., while the entire world was asleep, a 54-year-old man was shot dead at his own residence while he and his family too were asleep. This 54-year-old man was a surrendered HNLC cadre who, in the year 2018, had surrendered and was felicitated by the Meghalaya Police Department.
However, this has once again turned into an issue that has not gone down too well with the public, including the different organisations, the Meghalaya Human Rights Council and the different traditional heads. People from different walks of life have come out to condemn this act and demand justice for Cherishterfield Thangkhiew. What makes this issue more complicated is the way the Home Department and the police are stating this as an ‘encounter’.
Just like everybody out there, it makes me wonder too why this operation took place in the night’s darkness and not during broad daylight. I am sure that if the police had suspected him of having a hand in the blast that took place, they could have gotten a warrant, taken him into custody and interrogated him.
Another surprising thing that comes into the picture is the fact that this man was brought in to meet the Deputy Chief Minister in a surrendered programme conducted by the Meghalaya Police Department in October 2018 which could only mean that he was cooperating with the police and likely acting as a mediator. Then why would they want to get rid of him?
Before being deployed and posted to their respective locations, every personnel, whether involved with the Police Department or the armed forces, are likely to undergo a training to deal with armed people that may prove to be a threat to them or people around. In most situations, they would go for a hand-to-hand combat, unless in extreme cases with no viable option do they actually shoot a person — and that too under rare circumstances would shoot someone dead.
The ex-cadre of the HNLC was said to have attacked the police personnel with a knife—if this was the case, I am sure they could have tackled him to the ground especially since he was someone who was already weak and ill suffering from a kidney ailment. However, they shot him. This then brings me to question, who actually gave the order to shoot the man on site? Was it not the home minister? If he wanted, this could have been prevented. If orders were given to not shoot but bring him in for questioning and only injure him if he attacks, the unlikely death of this man would not have taken place and the blood of people would not be out in the streets and over social media crying out for his justice.
What is more saddening is the fact that they also took his two sons into custody. On what grounds was the arrest made? Only because they were both together with him? The fact that it was a mistake from the part of those who arrested them because they thought that the sons were his bodyguards (security) just shows the poor intelligence the Police Department is equipped with. The sons’ statement to the media that they were manhandled while in custody is horrible. Why this inhumane treatment?
All this just brings me to question the role of the Home Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui who surprisingly handed over his resignation to strip him from the portfolio. Everyone knows the incompetence of the Minister and the portfolios he handles. The tension at the border areas also died down because of the meeting of the Meghalaya CM with the CM of Assam and not because of the intervention of the home minister or the department concerned.
What else do we have to see now? Who do we blame if there is a rise in insurgency with the recent incident that occurred on the 13th of August? I fear that this will just put more angst in the younger generations, especially young men who are in their prime, not knowing what the future holds for them. Who do we blame then when our youth turn towards unmethodical ways that would put their lives and the lives of their own ones in danger only because they see such incidences that puts a different perception of the force in their minds?
We need someone who is fit to handle such an important portfolio which oversees the law-and-order situation in our State.
