Abductions have turn out to be the order of the day within the Garo Hills area of Meghalaya, comprising of 5 districts. While not less than 15 individuals have been kidnapped by completely different unidentified teams previously few weeks, have remained untraced, the police is taking a look at adopting a brand new technique to finish such incidents.
“There has been a sudden spate on the number of incidents of abductions in the past few weeks,” admitted Meghalaya DGP Rajiv Mehta, who toured the area on Tuesday and Wednesday to make an on-the-spot evaluation as additionally to attract up a greater technique to deal with the menace.
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He additionally stated that normally, the folks concerned should not members of the identified militant teams just like the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) or the United Achik Liberation Army (UALA). “These are handiwork of purely criminal groups which have somehow procured a couple of pistols and revolvers and are abducting anyone who they find in front of them. Some of them also have AK-47s. In most cases however, they have targeted non-tribal persons,” Mehta instructed The Indian Express.
While a subject officer of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and a Bengali fabric dealer had been pulled down from an SUV and whisked away on September 24, in South Garo Hills district, 9 passengers of a bus had been kidnapped by a bunch of masked gunmen from North Garo Hills district on September 28. A day later an engineer from Jammu and Kashmir, working with a non-public development firm was additionally picked up in East Garo Hills area.
There had been unconfirmed studies that Vikash Kumar, an assistant central intelligence officer (ACIO) hailing from Bihar was already lifeless, whereas there was no details about Waseem Ahmed, an engineer working with a Hyderabad-based agency engaged in street development. “We still hope both are alive,” the DGP stated. The police imagine that Ahmed was kidnapped by a gang comprising former members of the Achik Matgrik Elite Force (AMEF), which has disintegrated into not less than three factions.
“It is difficult to tell off-hand the exact number (of persons kidnapped). Incidents have occurred in all the five districts in the Garo Hills region. While some of the victims have been rescued by the police, few others have managed to come out. Some incidents are also likely to have remain unreported, with families of such victims secretly negotiating to get the persons released,” DGP Mehta admitted.
Local media in Shillong quoting a Home Ministry report final week, stated not less than 98 individuals had been kidnapped in Meghalaya between January and June 2015. An unofficial rely alternatively stated that in September alone, not less than 30 individuals had been taken hostage by completely different teams within the Garo Hills area.
Local MP and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma final week described the Garo Hills scenario as very disturbing. “All I can say is that there is no government in Meghalaya,” Sangma, who has despatched a letter to the Union Home Minister on the general scenario, stated in Shillong.
“While we are working on a new strategy to be employed soon, the good news is that the people have lynched a few such criminals they had caught and handed them over to the police along with at least half a dozen others who had gone to villages to extort money by abducting people,” DGP Mehta stated.
