SHILLONG:
Opposition Chief Whip George B Lyngdoh on Wednesday said militancy was on the rise again in the state and rebuked the state government for defending the intelligence branch of the police department despite the series of IED blasts.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said the chief minister’s statements make it clear there is a security threat in the state for which the intelligence department is working full time in order to avert incidents.
“If I am correct, he says that the intelligence department has been successful 99 per cent of the time and there has been only one per cent failure. It means there is a security threat in the state,” he said.
Lyngdoh said the militant group has been successful in four of its five IED blast attempts and failed only once when the bomb planted near the NPP’s office did not go off. He said every time the opposition alerts the government on intelligence failure it jumps to the department’s defence.
“What is there in defending when we are seeing these failures,” he said while asserting, “This time the government should realise its mistakes and accept that things are happening on the ground which pose a threat to peace and tranquility in the state,” he said.
He said the government should understand the opposition is not saying things just for the sake of saying, but because there is a sudden resurgence of militancy in the state and failure of the department to prevent it. “This shows there is lack of commitment and they have been totally caught unawares,” he said.
On the government’s decision to restructure the Special Force-10, Lyngdoh said the unit’s disbanding was a serious mistake vis-a-vis security. He also reminded that the SF-10 was created and imparted added skills and the best of the best youths were selected to be a part of it.
“On one hand you are saying there is a security threat to the state and on the other you are disbanding the SF-10, so is there a serious approach towards maintaining law and order in the state and ensuring a peaceful state. If you are disbanding your security personnel who have been trained only for anti-militancy operations while getting inputs that there is constant threat to the state, then what is the government looking at, that is my question,” he said.