Shillong, June 28: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday said minor issues can always be resolved but it is not possible to give ‘blanket amnesty’ to the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC).
Addressing media persons, Sangma said that the state government is taking up with the Centre in regards to the demands of the HNLC.
“We are speaking with the government of India also and we have made it very clear as to what level we can go to and this has been communicated to the HNLC and members multiple times and this has been communicated through the government of India as well as state government. So there are certain procedures that are followed in all talks that the government of India is involved in and hence, we are following the same protocol and the same process is being followed,” he said.
He noted that there is a process laid out and any amnesty will be based on the guidelines given. “Any kind of heinous crimes that are there and were committed in the past, those areas they have to look at. Therefore, it is not possible to just say that it is a blanket amnesty we will give to or we can give its case to case basis, it has to be looked into,” he said.
The CM however said, “Both government of India and the state government have said we are ready to discuss all these matters. Giving a statement that general amnesty will be given is going against and deviating from the normal process followed by the government of India and the government of Meghalaya when we go for talks like these.”
Earlier this year, the HNLC had pulled out of the peace talks alleging that the government has failed to address their five core demands which include providing general amnesty to leaders and cadres of the outfit.
Increase in HNLC activities
Referring to the HNLC increasing its illegal activities by serving demand notes to citizens, Sangma said, “Illegal activities mean basically sending whatsapp messages. I don’t know how you will define sending a whatsapp message as an activity, it’s very easy these days to send whatsapp messages – but then we are working towards finding out ways to nab that also and how we can overcome that. We are working with the police organization. I don’t want to talk too much on that but because of that we are succeeding in getting more intel and picking up some people and this will continue.”
“We have taken this up in the meeting (at police headquarters) today and I have asked the DG and others to improve and invest in this aspect so that we are able to stop this kind of extortion notes coming in randomly to the citizens of the state,” he informed.
Sleeper Cell a strong word
In regards to the HNLC sleeper cell that was busted recently, the CM said, “Sleeper cell is like a very strong word, it’s just another very technically high word for somebody who is not active and but then were picked up and were asked to be active again.”
“It’s not really that they are hi-fi sleeper cells but there are some individuals, who sometimes are given money, and they are asked to do certain activities and then we termed them as sleeper cells.”
He said the government is improving its overall cyber cell and keeping a close watch on everything. “That is the reason why we are able to nab certain individuals that are there but yes we are not taking it easy. We are not going to take it lightly. Every single issue, threat, is treated very seriously by us and we will examine this and we will ensure we take every step to ensure that this does not pose a very serious problem. As I said these individuals are at different levels, who are used by different leaders mainly of HNLC, who then carry out different activities through them. We are keeping a watch on that and we are not taking it lightly,” he added.
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