Opposition seeks probe into Cheristerfield Thangkhiew surrender, Shillong

* Politico-criminal nexus must be investigated: Dr. Sangma

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: Opposition leader, Dr. Mukul Sangma has said that there should be a probe into the recent surrender of the general secretary of the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), Cheristerfield Thangkhiew.

“The government and the investigating authorities should find out and we (Opposition) will press for that,” Dr. Sangma said.

The Opposition leader also asked who (which agency) was authorized to talk to the HNLC even as he stated that it has to be found out whether it was a politician who has been talking to them all these years as a facilitator.

According to Dr. Sangma, the law is very clear and nobody has the luxury of having that freedom to talk to any member of the banned outfit and then say they don’t have any nexus (with militants).

On allegations made by the former HNLC leader that the Congress did not demonstrate any interest for talks with the HNLC despite a telephonic conversation with the then Home Minister Roshan Warjri, Dr Sangma said, “We don’t reach out to individuals like that and no one is authorized to reach out to anybody, not even the Home Minister.”

The Opposition leader also made it clear that it is the political department that deals with issues of militancy and not by the Home (Police) department.

“There is a system which is followed so that nobody can misuse it otherwise you cannot rule out a politician from taking advantage of his own position. Earlier there has been a debate on the politico-criminal nexus,” the Congress leader said.

Meanwhile, he also said that it has to be found out whether State Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong was talking regularly with the former HNLC leader (Thangkhiew) and that after the formation of the government they brought him and made to surrender. “We should find out whether he was holding talks with the then HNLC general secretary the whole year. Maybe they used him during the last election,” Dr. Sangma said.