GUWAHATI:July 20 :
The social-media-savvy Garo National
Liberation Army (GNLA) militants, who operate in the Garo Hills region
of Meghalaya, have threatened the state police after the latter got
their Facebook page blocked.On Saturday, the popular social media site blocked “Garo National Liberation Army HQ. Asim News Bulletin”, the official page of the banned outfit, on the request of Meghalaya Police.
In a statement, GNLA’s joint publicity secretary Garo Mandei Marak said the police’s action was “unwanted” and warned them against blocking or hacking their social media platforms or the results will be “regretful”.
The GNLA even threatened to ‘paralyse’ the entire mobile and broadband communication in the Garo Hills region if its social media networking activities are blocked again.
The GNLA, which is known to be the most social-media savvy among all underground militant groups from the Northeast, opened a new Facebook page on Sunday. Many of the GNLA’s top leaders have their personal accounts on Facebook and other social networking sites and promote their ideology through the online world.
The police, is not ready to budge, however. “GNLA is a declared terrorist organisation, and all its means, including the social media, which it uses to spread violence and preach anti-national sentiments, need to be stopped,” said GHP Raju, IGP (Operations & Law & order), Meghalaya Police.
There are a couple of anti-GNLA pages on social media as well. Sources say these were mostly created by intelligence agencies. The GNLA eyes a separate Garoland in western Meghalaya.