Shillong, Feb. 12: A woman activist of the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), who surrendered before police today, told her interrogators that she had to work in betel nut plantations in Bangladesh to eke out a living because of fund constraints in the outfit’s camps.

Marbilas Syiemlieh alias Dari, who surrendered before the East Khasi Hills superintendent of police, A.R. Mawthoh, this evening, is a resident of Manad village of Mawkyrwat subdivision of West Khasi Hills.

The 25-year-old woman cadre belonged to the army wing of the HNLC and had received arms training in Chittagong Hill Tracts in 2003 soon after joining the outfit.

Marbilas, who had been staying in the HNLC camp in Bangladesh since 2003, had left the camp recently and stayed in Nirlapunjee of Maulvi Bazar district of Bangladesh near the Khasi Hills border.

Quoting the rebel, the East Khasi Hills SP said the reason for her leaving the outfit was because of the hardships she had to face, which was basically because of the lack of financial support in the camp.

Many of the cadres are not getting any financial support from the top leaders of the outfit to sustain themselves in the camps and hence they work in the betel nut plantations of the Khasi villagers in Bang-ladesh, Marbilas told the police.

She said the HNLC cadres suffer from various illnesses, which makes their lives more miserable. “When the cadres are sick they have to beg for money from the villagers in Bangladesh,” Marbilas told the police.

She also revealed that the Bangladeshi villagers are no longer sympathetic to them and often ask the HNLC cadres to work in the betel nut plantations for very low wages, if they require money.