The Journaling of Godfrey 701

Thus, Article 370 of the Constitution was basically a disguise of the Islamic Sharia principle that the gullible members of the Constituent Assembly could never comprehend. As a member of the Indian Police Service, the author dealt with complex legal enforcement issues as well as major internal security and terrorism challenges in all theatres. Therefore, he boldly asserts, with full responsibility and supported by indisputable empirical and textual evidence, that the Indian Constitution has, among other things, created or aggravated three persistent terrorism problems. At a meeting on August 6, the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam decided to set up three committees from both sides to be headed by cabinet ministers to minimise the areas of differences. He said that for the first time in many years, people celebrated Independence Day with a free mind with no organisation calling a bandh on the day.



The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh in the north, Nagaland and Manipur to the east, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bangladesh in the south and West Bengal in the west via the strategic narrow Sillguri Corridor connecting the state and entire northeast to the rest of India. Assamese, Bodo and Bengali are the official languages of the Assamese while Bengali is official language in Barak valley. I have had two tenures of 4 years each in the North East- the first one in Mizoram when the insurgency was at peak and I having taken advance party of my Battalion moving from peace station Gaya, concentrated at Agartala and marched on foot from Agartala to Aijwal around mid-1966.
Significant developmental deficits aggravate ethnic tensions and have long been a source of potential violence. In this light the remnants of insurgent formations, coupled with the possibility of civil unrest, continue to keep Meghalaya in a state of disquiet. Military operations in Mizoram, where the army reportedly launched air strikes to neutralize the M.N.F. cadres, resulted in several fatalities and displacement among the civilian population.

The law provides for the right to strike but places restrictions on this right for some workers. The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and retribution for involvement in legal strikes and provides for reinstatement of employees fired for union activity. Police engaged in programs to strengthen their role in protecting communities vulnerable to human rights violations and HIV. LGBTI groups reported they faced widespread societal discrimination and violence, particularly in rural areas. Activists reported that transgender persons, who were HIV positive, continued to face difficulty obtaining medical treatment. NGOs reported widespread discrimination, including prohibiting Dalits from walking on public pathways, wearing footwear, accessing water from public taps in upper-caste neighborhoods, participating in some temple festivals, bathing in public pools, or using certain cremation grounds.
In some cases violent strikes resulted from companies withholding medical care required by law. Other reports indicated workers had difficulty accessing clean water, with open sewage flowing through company housing areas. In August, Minister of State for Home Affairs Ahir informed parliament’s lower house there were approximately 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families in the country. The Jammu and Kashmir state government reported threats to Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley during the year.

Despite its dream of sectarian utopia, the group saw cracks due to its own ethnic differences, which then led to the breaking up of the parent body into two groups – the HNLC in 1992–1993 representing the Khasis and Jaintias, and the Achik Matgrik Liberation Army representing the Garos. The purpose of the movement had separatist tendencies at the inception — the creation of a separate homeland, or at least self-governaning territory for Khasis, Jaiñtias, and Garos. He said that now 60 per cent area of Assam, seven districts of Nagaland, 15 police stations in six districts of Manipur and Tripura and Meghalaya have become completely AFSPA-free, while in only one district of Arunachal Pradesh the AFSPA is yet to be lifted.
In Maoist-affected areas, there were reports of abuses by security forces and insurgents. On March 29, two tribal-affiliated citizens died in Assam’s Chirang District after an encounter with security forces. The two were believed to be members of a banned armed insurgent group called the National Democratic Front of Bodoland. In a report filed by the Assam Police, the security forces stated they came under heavy fire from the group and that retaliatory fire from the security forces killed the two men. An inquiry conducted by the inspector general of the Central Reserve Police Force , however, stated that the two men, already in police custody, were taken to a nearby village, shot, and killed.
HRW reported women and girls with disabilities occasionally were forced into mental hospitals against their will. In May humanitarian aid organization World Vision India conducted a survey of 45,844 children between the ages of 12 and 18 across 26 states and found that one in every two children was a victim of sexual abuse. The Counsel to Secure Justice reported nearly 30 percent of child sexual abuse cases involved incest and 99 percent of overall child sexual abuse cases were not reported.

Lengthy arbitrary detention remained a significant problem due to overburdened and under resourced court systems and a lack of legal safeguards. The NHRC recommended the Criminal Investigations Department of the state police investigate all deaths taking place during police pursuits, arrests, or escape attempts. Many states did not follow this nonbinding recommendation and continued to conduct internal reviews at the discretion of senior officers.
Presently, Arunachal Pradesh does not have any local group and is affected by the spill-over insurgent groups of NSCN and ULFA in Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts. Prime Minister Modi has asserted that the government is working with full force to make Arunachal Pradesh a major gateway to East Asia. In Manipur Churachandpur is the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and cosmopolitan town raged in ethnic violence since 1947.

NGOs claimed that due to AFSPA immunity provisions, authorities did not hold the armed forces responsible for the deaths of civilians killed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in previous years. Reports of custodial death cases, in which prisoners or detainees were killed or died in police custody, continued. Decisions by central and state authorities not to prosecute police or security officials despite reports of evidence in certain cases remained a problem. The National Crime Records Bureau reported 92 cases of custodial deaths nationwide in 2016 with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of cases at 16. According to a media report, in response to a “Right to Information” petition, the NHRC stated that 74 persons died in police custody from January 1 through August 2.
On October 25, a special CBI court brought charges against 16 law enforcement officers for their alleged involvement in the encounter deaths of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati. A joint Rajasthan and Gujarat antiterrorist squad allegedly killed Sheikh on a highway near Ahmedabad in November 2005; later, police allegedly killed his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati, a key witness in the case. According to the CBI, charges were not brought against those accused who had applications pending in the Bombay High Court or the Supreme Court.

Since a large percentage of the educated are jobless, militancy becomes an attractive career option. According to the Police, "The insurgents appear to be anti-socials out to make fast money. If they had a committed agenda, they would have at least had a course of action. They operate and strike on the order of other northeastern militant groups." The purpose of this article is to understand the crisis in Meghalaya through a historical overview. In aid of this, it will first understand who the “Hynniewtrep” are – a word which has mobilized Khasi-Jaintia insurgents over the years. Alongside this, it will study the history of insurgency in Meghalaya to understand how matters came to a head on 15th August 2021. Second, it will analyze the main factors that have led to the instability in the state to comprehend how it fits into the larger instabilities in the Northeast.
Additionally, NGOs reported that victims were sometimes reluctant to report crimes committed by police due to fear of retribution. There were cases of officers at all levels acting with impunity, but there were also cases of security officials held accountable for illegal actions. Military courts investigated cases of abuse by the armed forces and paramilitary forces. Authorities tried cases against law enforcement officers in public courts but sometimes did not adhere to due process. The most significant human rights issues included police and security force abuses, such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention. Widespread corruption; reports of political prisoners in certain states; and instances of censorship and harassment of media outlets, including some critical of the government continued.