Chesterfield Thangkhiew, a former HNLC leader, was assassinated in the early hours of Friday at his home in Shillong’s Mawlai-Kynton Massar.
Thangkhiew, 56, was murdered during an encounter with police after a joint team of East Jaintia Hills police and East Khasi Hills police stormed his residence at around 3 a.m. on Friday in connection with the recent explosions in the state.HNLC militants detonated an IED at Laitmukhra in Shillong on Tuesday, injuring two people, one of them was a lady. Earlier in July, alleged HNLC militants detonated another bomb in the East Jaintia Hills district headquarters’ police reserve barracks.
According to reports, as soon as the team entered the former militant’s residence, he assaulted them with a knife, prompting the police to open fire in retaliation. According to police sources, he was injured in the shooting and was carried to a hospital, where a doctor ruled him “brought dead.”
Police recovered one 9 mm pistol, one knife, a laptop, and a number of mobile phones from the house former HNLC general secretary.
Police have also arrested Chesterfield’s two associates from his house.
Thangkhiew, the self-styled general secretary of the proscribed rebel group HNLC, surrendered in Shillong in October 2018 before Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong. He was a founding member of the HNLC and was recognised as one of the state’s most feared militant commanders.
The HNLC leader was also instrumental in setting up more than six training camps of the outfit in Sylhet and Maulavibazar districts of Bangladesh.
54-year-old Thangkhiew, son of Stevenson Thangkhiew of Mawlai Kynton Masar, joined Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC), the first militant outfit in Meghalaya, in August 1987 and held the post of general secretary.
He was actively involved in political mobilization.
Later when HALC was disbanded, a new rebel outfit–HNLC was floated in 1997 and he became its general secretary. In 2004, he left Meghalaya for Bangladesh and never returned till his surrender in 2018.