Pay Up Or Else...

Extortion is the backbone of insurgency in the Northeast and Meghalaya, host to twoinsurgent groups, is no exception. Media reports suggested that the presence of uniformed private securitypersonnel in the business establishments of Police Bazaar and Barra Bazaar in Shillong, Meghalaya's capital,is intended to protect shop-owners from extortionists. But, the common belief is that when a demand comes fromthe militant of the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) or the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC),no law enforcer or constitutional authority can protect those who do not pay up. In several cases in themid-1990s, defaulters were simply eliminated, and the case of Rajesh Saigal of Saigal Motor Accessories inLaitumkhrah is fresh in public memory.

In the early 1990s, outfits like the ANVC depended on forest contractors for the major share of their funds.However, with public exposés of forest scams and the ban on the timber trade, the focus of extortion shiftedto the lucrative coal trade, and eventually brought businessmen, ministers and government officials into itsambit. In September 1997, a state Minister who happened to run a weighing bridge on lease was given anextortion note demanding fifty thousand rupees. Around the same time, seven top businessmen were asked to payamounts ranging from Rs 1 to 2 lakh and, gradually, increasing numbers of traders and businessmen foundthemselves targeted by the insurgents' 'tax' network.

Police sources indicate that, during March 2003, the ANVC had served extortion notes to most businessmen inthe East and West Garo Hills districts. Government servants in these districts were also asked to pay acertain proportion of their salaries every month. Truckers engaged in coal transportation were also asked topay from fifteen to twenty thousand rupees annually to the outfit. Besides this 'annual tax', 'every truckcarrying coal and other commodities is directed to be ready to pay any amount at any moment whenever themilitants are in need of money'. Approximately four hundred trucks ply daily carrying coal from the GaroHills.

"Receiving demand notes, negotiating on the amount and the nature of payment has become a part of ourbusiness skill. When even the laborers working in the coal business are not spared, I can't think of defyingthe militants demand not only for the continuation of my business but also for my own safety", rued afrustrated businessman, who owns a coal field in Borsora.

According to rough estimates, Meghalaya exports coal, limestone and boulders worth Rs 200 crore annually toBangladesh. Between October 1989 and March 1990, the Meghalaya Mineral Development Corporation (MMDC), incharge of the official export, exported 36,000 tonnes of coal to Bangladesh, worth Rs 3.35 crore. The averagetransshipment of coal to Bangladesh from South Garo Hills through land customs stations alone is of the valueof Rs 2 to 2.5 crore. Although no accurate estimate is available of the proportion of this total trade thatfinds its way into the militants' coffers, it is certain that the coal trade alone could meet most of thefinancial requirements of the ANVC's operations.

To elude the police dragnet, the militants have adopted varied methods of extortion. Shunning the earlierpractice of sending its own men to collect the ransom, the ANVC, in 2003, started sending extortion notesdemanding between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 40 lakh by Registered Post from Williamnagar, to businessmen and governmentservants in Tura. The group also engages college students, auto rickshaw drivers, common people and some ofits overground members for the distribution of extortion notes.  

In November 2003, police arrested one Jerry Marak, a 1st year Pre-University student fromTura, in this connection. In a recent interview, a Shillong-based businessman disclosed that, "Suchdemands from the militants are often conveyed through a middleman… and even the middleman has another personthrough whom the demand and the payment is done, which makes the whole business more elusive". Theextortion notes are often delivered by scooter-borne youth.

The abduction of government officers and businessmen for ransom is another method used by the outfits toprocure funds. A Customs official, posted in Dawki, speaking to this writer, maintained that "theabduction of businessmen and government officials by militants is often for ransom, while village headmen andschool teachers in the village are often abducted on the suspicion of being police informeRs"

Among the recent incidents involving significant sums of money are:

• September 2, 2003: ANVC militants demanded Rs 15 lakh as ransom for the release of the abducted Manager ofthe state Bank of India's Bajengdoba branch in East Garo Hills, Salyban Pateh.
  
  
• March 4, 2003: The ANVC ambushed a General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) vehicle killing 3 personneland looted Rs 70 lakh at Rongjang in East Garo hills.
  
  
• February 28, 2003: The NDFB/ANVC cadres abducted six persons from RC Agarwalla Coal Exporting Company andCustoms official Dipak Mahanta from Gasuapara for a ransom of Rupees 4 crore. After this incident, operationsin 13 land customs stations spread over Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, which screen export of coal, bouldersand limestones to Bangladesh were suspended through March.
  
  
• December 19, 2002: ANVC cadres abducted P.N. Bezbaruah, District Health Medical Officer (DHMO) and memberof the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council for a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. He was released on January 29 after41 days in captivity, after a substantial amount of money had changed hands.

The HNLC's criminal and extortion network is no less efficient. The HNLC since itsinception, according to rough estimates, had collected more than Rs 5 crore by 1997. Till that year, the grouphad looted 14 banks, offices and petrol pumps, harvesting Rs 65 lakh through such exercises. The arrest of theHNLC 'finance secretary', Fullstar Rani, on June 7, 2003, revealed that the group was receiving more than Rs 4. 2crore annually through extortion and other illegal activities. Most of the money collected is sent to'Chairman' Julius K. Dorphang and 'General Secretary' Chrisstarfield Thangkhiew in Bangladesh. During May2003, the police had alleged that the HNLC had opened bank accounts in Bangladesh in the name of some Khasi-Bangladeshis,with millions of rupees deposited.

Till very recently, everybody who mattered paid up to the HNLC in Shillong. Documents seized from HNLC cadresin 2003 revealed that Patel Engineering, which has taken up the construction of PHE dam at Mawphlang, had'donated' about Rs 1.4 crore to the outfit. In July 2003, the police identified 152 businessmen against whomcases were filed at five police stations for allegedly funding the HNLC. 

The police also filed First Information Reports (FIRs) against 14 government employees atthree police stations on charges of funding militants to the tune of  Rs 6 lakh every six months. Even 'Teer'(local lottery) counters in Shillong provide a significant income to the HNLC. The Special Operation Team ofthe Police, on November 3, 2003, arrested the Vice President of the Archery Association, Risting Khonsngi,from Wahingdoh, and the General Secretary, Herbok Laloo, hailing from Mawkhar, for contributing money to themilitant group. According to media reports in 2003, government Departments like the Public Health Engineering(PHE) and the Public Works Department (PWD) were funding the outfit. 

During a recent interview with this writer, L. Sailo, Director General of Police, Meghalaya,conceded the fact and even explained how the mechanism works. "Unlike the businessmen for whom thecollection is monthly, government departments pay up annually, mostly during the last financial month. Thedepartments pass separate bills for such demands." Senior Police officials also disclose that the'secretary' of the HNLC's finance cell had recently built a bunglow in the Mawlai area of Shillong.

To aggravate matters, politicians in the state have also been accused of colluding with the militants. InApril 2003, former Garo National Council Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Clifford R. Marak accusedformer Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) speaker Purno Sangma of giving Rs 3 crore to the ANVC during theFebruary Assembly Election. "It was an open secret that Sangma donated Rs 3 crore to ANVC to ensure thatthe Nationalist Congress Party Candidates emerge victorious in the elections", Marak said in a mediainterview.

The police chief, however, sounded confident that things are changing for better. "HNLC cadres arerunning away from the camps after we busted their finance cell. So they hardly have much finance now andthough the situation in the two districts of Garo Hills is still not calm, in the recent times the situationin the city has considerably calmed down, except in the border areas like Borsora, which is still verysensitive."

Notwithstanding the Police Chief's assertion regarding the restoration of control over the urban centers, itis not clear whether the state Police force will also be able to rein in the militants in the remote areas ofthe state as well. On August 9, 2003, fifteen families belonging to the 25th Mile village under Hima Langrinin West Khasi Hills vacated the area in the wake of the expiry of ANVC's deadline to pay Rs 30,000 to theoutfit by August 10. Earlier, the ANVC terrorists had killed the headman of Rajaju village in West Khasi Hillssuspecting him to be a police informer. As things stand today, extortion continues in every nook and corner ofMeghalaya. And the state of affairs is likely to remain bleak unless strong correctives are put in place.

Sashinungla is Research Associate, ICM Database & Documentation Centre, GuwahatiCourtesy, the SouthAsia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal