Shillong, Feb. 1: Meghalaya police today claimed to have broken the backbone of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), citing the surrender of some top leaders of the group during the past fortnight as a sign of panic in its ranks.
?The reason for the cracks in the HNLC is very simple. The demolition of the outfit?s finance wing and our sustained crackdown on its combatant cadres during the last two years choked its lifeline, which is money,? a senior police official said.
?The distance between three top leaders of the outfit over various issues is growing. This is the key factor in the HNLC?s disintegration.?
East Khasi Hills superintendent of police A.S. Rynjah told the media a couple of days ago that most of the HNLC recruits had been asked to return to their villages after training in camps inside Bangladesh. He said disillusionment had set in and members of the militant group were no longer unconditionally loyal to their leadership.
HNLC chairman Julius Dorphang and commander-in-chief Bobby Marwein are reportedly have lavish lifestyles in Bangladesh.
Some HNLC members are stranded in parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and Panai, Srimongol, Maulvibazar and Nehar, where the outfit shares training camps with the National Liberation Front of Tripura.
Delhi outlawed the HNLC along with the Achik National Volunteers Council, which is primarily active in the Garo Hills.