Meghalaya cops killed former rebel leader in a botched up operation: Report
GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya police killed former insurgent leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew in an operation carried out "recklessly" using excessive force, a one-man commission of inquiry said in its report which Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma tabled in the Assembly on Friday.
"The operation was a well-laid plan but executed poorly, recklessly, hastily and without proper application of mind. It was a botched up operation, failing in its objective of apprehending the deceased alive," the report by the Justice (retd) T Vaiphei-headed commission said.
It further said the police "Tactical Team" in carrying out the operation at about 3 am at Thangkhiew’s Shillong residence was "culpable of thoughtless and excessive use of force".
The report said if the police personnel had waited for daylight to break and lobbed teargas grenade into the rooms occupied by Thangkhiew and his family members, they could have been forced to come out and in the process, he could have been apprehended.
"If the primary objective of carrying out the operation was to capture the deceased alive, the manner in which the raid was conducted unnecessarily gives rise to the impression that that was not so," the report said.
Sporadic incidents of violence had broken out in Shillong after the killing of the former Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council leader on August 13 last year. The protestors torched vehicles and snatched the service rifles of some policemen. Later, they brandished the weapons in public in Taliban-style while travelling in a vehicle in localities.
Recently, Granary Starfield Thangkhiew, brother of the slain insurgent leader, said the family was hopeful of getting justice. He said the members of the family, especially Thangkhiew's two sons who witnessed the incident, were yet to come out of the trauma.
"It is extremely difficult for the two to come to terms of what had happened," he had stated.