Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday said 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.
“Therefore, we are not deviating from those process so based on that we have mentioned that any kind of minor crimes that are there or minor issues that are there, we resolved those but any kind of heinous crimes that are there and were committed in the past, those areas we have to looked 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.”
On the sleeper cells of HNLC, CM said the state Government and the police are keeping a close watch and take every step to ensure this doesn’t pose any serious problem.
Asserting that the state is improving cyber cell and investing a lot on that, Chief Minister said the matter is not taken lightly.
“We are improving our overall, a cyber, you know, Cell and when ensuring that we invest in that a lot, therefore we’re keeping close watch on everything. And that’s the reason why we’ve been able to nab this certain individuals that are there, but again yes, we will not be taking it easy,” Sangma said.
On HNLC illegal activities, Sangma said, “Illegal activities means 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.