‘Four Indians convicted in Bangladesh were militants’

[Prometheus]

Shillong: Four Indians convicted of arms smuggling and imprisoned for 17 years in Bangladesh last week are members of the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), a militant outfit in Meghalaya, a senior police official said Sunday.

"Sketchy reports from various networks confirmed that the four convicted Indians in Bangladesh are members of the outlawed HNLC," Additional Director General of Police (Special Branch) SK Jain said.

The HNLC, a Khasi separatist outfit that carries out hit-and-run operations from its hideouts in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Hynniewtrep homeland in Eastern Meghalaya.

On April 29, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge of Sylhet-I convicted Robin (35), Mill (28), Over (25) and Star (24) -- all hailing from Shillong -- in a five-year-old case of arms smuggling.

All the four, Jain said, were wanted by the Meghalaya Police for their involvement in the biggest bank heist in Jaintia Hills district January 24, 2005. Rs 93 lakh was looted from the Meghalaya Cooperative Apex Bank in Khliehriat sub-division.

On July 15, 2005, Bangladesh Rifles troopers arrested the four HNLC militants from Karaballa point under Sylhet district after they entered Bangladesh through Karimganj sector in Assam (India).

The Bangladesh border guards recovered from their possession an AK 56 rifle, three grenades, two 9 mm pistols, 316 bullets and four magazines of AK 56 rifle, 328 bullets and three magazines of 9 mm pistol, Rs 3,000 and 2,700 takas.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.

According to the police official, the HNLC is closely linked to the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland and the National Liberation Front of Tripura.

?Four Indians convicted in Bangladesh were militants?

 

[Prometheus]

I hope after getting sewa from Bangladesh.........india will also get a chance to do their SEWA

 

[ARCHON]

?Four Indians convicted in Bangladesh were militants?

Why??/ is this the first time you hear about militants from north east, there are lots of organistions banned there fighting for seperate state for each tribals and they share border with Bangladesh, so its no surprise if few sneaked through!!!

Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), remains the strongest among surviving militant groups. Claiming to represent the majority Khasi tribe, the HNLC continued to operate in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region in 2009. Extortion targeting local traders across the India-Bangladesh border constituted the bulk of HNLC’s activities. Media reports in March 2009 mentioned that, after Police successes in curbing the HNLC’s extortion drive, the group began targeting local traders in the border region. The HNLC has over 100 cadres, most of them located in Bangladesh. Difficult living conditions and the absence of facilities in the neighbouring country have provoked the surrender of many cadres in Meghalaya. According to the SATP database, at least nine HNLC cadres surrendered in Jaintia and East Khasi Hills District in 2009. One of them reveled that leaders of the proscribed outfit were leading a luxurious life, despite acute privations among the rank and file in Bangladesh.






Meghalaya Assessment - Year 2010