SHILLONG, Nov 10 � Meghalaya Police will prepare �crime maps� of the Western Range of the State, prone to insurgency, abduction and extortion and carry out �special policing� in this area.
The Western Range of the State includes the five districts of East, West, North, South and South-West Garo Hills. The decision for special policing was taken after a review meeting between Director General of Police, Rajiv Mehta together with the Inspector General of Police, Western Range, FD Sangma and Superintendents of Police of all these five districts here today.
During the meeting, Mehta directed the SPs of these districts to first prepare crime maps and identify spots where the cases of abduction, extortion and other crimes committed by militants and gangs are on, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) GHP Raju said.
�Special preventive policing steps are being initiated in these crime prone hotspots to dominate and deny opportunity to militants and criminals committing kidnappings and extortions,� Raju stated.
He said, all the vulnerable routes on the national highway and State highways in all the districts of Garo Hills would now be pooled at designated spots and convoys would be provided for onward journey.
�The public has been urged to cooperate with police in this exercise. Dainadubi, Bajengdoba, Mankachar, Dalu and other police establishments on the national highway and State highways have been directed to ensure police escort to all civilian vehicles plying after pooling them,� Raju said about the DGP�s direction.
The meeting further discussed about the availability of phone SIM cards in the black market. It was discussed how some of these SIM cards are being used by the criminals and militants to further their illegal activities in the Garo Hills region.
�In all the kidnappings and extortions cases in Garo Hills areas, all militants and criminals have used pre-activated SIM cards which originated from Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura States,� Raju said, adding that steps would be taken to prevent misuse of such SIMs cards.
The DGP also reiterated his earlier instructions given to the district SPs about law and orders issues related to Garo Hills region. He reviewed the district performance on counter-insurgency operations, progress on kidnapping cases, availability of forces in each district and effective use of these forces.
The State police on the other hand has intensified counter-insurgency operations in the Garo Hills region after the Meghalaya High Court asked the Centre to consider deployment of Army after invoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
