Madhepura, Aug. 29: Meghalaya is turning out to be a dreaded territory for bank officials hailing from Bihar.
The threat from extremists and frequent abductions for ransom in the past few months has driven them to the edge.
A substantial number of State Bank of India managers have either proceeded on leave or requested their top management to transfer them to safer regions in view of the lurking threat to their lives from extremists operating in the Garo Hills.
Bank officials are a soft target for extremist outfits like the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), A’chik National Volunteers’ Council (ANVC), A’chik Songna An’pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK), Liberation of Achik Elite Force (LAEF) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland.
The outfits keep demanding Rs 5 to Rs 50 lakh as protection money from officials posted in SBI branches under Tura region for the so-called development of Garo hills.
They threaten those who don’t cough up the money with abduction or murder.
Sushil Kumar, who hails from Madhepura in Bihar and is a SBI branch manager posted at Tura-Rajabala in North Garo Hills district, has gone on leave since August 1 after ASAK activists called him up and sent SMSes asking him to cough up Rs 5 lakh or face dire consequences like others in his field have.
A shaken Sushil lodged an FIR at Tura-Rajabala police station and went on leave. “I won’t join duty unless I am transferred,” said a terrified Sushil, who has now returned to Madhepura. “I have conveyed this to my higher-ups.”
Several bank officials have been at the receiving end in February, April and June after they ignored similar calls from the extremists.
Arvind Kumar, branch manager of SBI’s Ampati unit was abducted in broad daylight on June 22 for failing to cough up protection money. He was freed after an encounter with the police.
Similarly, Subodh Kant Mishra, an assistant at SBI’s Gasuapara branch, was kidnapped because of a mistaken identity while returning home on August 5. He remained in captivity for a fortnight and made headlines in Meghalaya’s newspapers, being let off only after his family paid ransom.
The series of abductions and open threats has unnerved bankers in Tura region. With the state government doing little to put them at ease, the SBI Officers Association, Shillong unit, launched an indefinite strike on August 11 to draw attention to the law and order condition. When approached, Tura superintendent of police (SP) M.K. Singh told The Telegraph: “We have some feedback about the activities of extremists and plans have been chalked out to contain them.”
On the bank officers’ demand for adequate security, the SP evaded a reply. On more than a dozen SBI branches reaming shut because of fear of extremists, he said: “We are providing security wherever new branches are being opened.”
The assistant general secretary of SBI Officers association, Shillong, Vijay Dutta, said over phone that of 41 SBI branches in the state’s Tura region, about 25 had opened under cover of security while the rest remain shut and are yet to be functional.
Dutta said: ”We shall not at all compromise so far as our security is concerned. That is why we have demanded proper security as well as fixation of tenure of employees in insurgency-hit areas.”
