New Delhi: An improvised explosive device was detected near the gate of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) office in Shillong on Monday, October 4, which coincided with the visit of vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu to Meghalaya.
On October 4, Naidu, after visiting Assam, travelled to Shillong to inaugurate a road project and attend a meeting of the Shillong-based North Eastern Council (NEC).
According to a report in The Shillong Times, quoting police sources, the bomb squad seized a bag containing the live bomb outside the NPP office around 2 pm. It was diffused, and an investigation is on. NPP leaders spotted the abandoned bag after which the police was informed.
Soon after the two-kg explosive device was recovered from the NPP office at the city’s Lower Lachumiere area, the banned armed outfit Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) claimed responsibility for it. HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw made that declaration on Facebook.
According to a PTI report, Sainkupar said it was planted as a mark of protest against the killing of their leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew in a police encounter in August at his house in Shillong.
In the early hours on August 13, Cheristerfield, a founding member and former general secretary of HNLC, was gunned down at his residence by police in an ‘encounter’ which led to massive protests in the state. Cheristerfield (56) had surrendered to the NPP-led government in the state in October 2018 and was living at his residence in Shillong’s Laitumkhrah area.
Cheristerfield’s surrender had brought hope for the start of talks between the government and the banned HNLC. Prior to the formation of HNLC in 1997, Cheristerfield was also a part of the first militant group of Meghalaya HALC (Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council).
Immediately after Cheristerfield’s killing, HNLC leaders said he was negotiating the start of possible peace talks with the government. The state police, justifying the ‘encounter’, had claimed that he attacked the police team raiding his house around 2:45 am with a knife and was behind two low intensity blasts in the state this past July and August.