Dima Hasao Police Gun Down Suspected HPC(D) Cadre, Cachar Hmar Community Pays Last Respect

A suspected militant was killed in the early hours of Tuesday (December 2) during an encounter at Jinam Valley along the Cachar–Dima Hasao border. The incident occurred after a group of alleged militants reportedly stopped a truck at gunpoint and demanded money. After the encounter, the body was brought to Silchar Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. The Hmar community from Hmarkhawlien paid him last respect.

According to sources, the group allegedly fired blank rounds to intimidate the driver. A patrol team of Dima Hasao Police, deployed in the vicinity, heard the gunshots and rushed to assess the situation. A brief exchange of fire followed, during which one person—identified as Moody Hmar—was killed.

Senior officers, including the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Dima Hasao and the SSP of Cachar, reached the spot shortly after the incident. The body was later recovered and sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) for post-mortem examination.

Police sources said that the deceased is a suspected cadre of the Hmar People’s Convention–Democracy (HPC-D). Moody Hmar hailed from an area under Mahur Police Station in Dima Hasao district.

After the post-mortem, while the body was being taken back to his native village, members of the Hmar community at Hmarkhawlien offered last tributes along the way.

The Hmar People’s Convention–Democracy (HPC-D) is a splinter group formed in 1995 after a faction broke away from the Hmar People’s Convention (HPC). The parent organisation, HPC, was formed in 1986 as a political group demanding self-governance for Hmar-inhabited areas across Mizoram, Assam, and Manipur, envisioning a “Greater Mizoram”.

Dissatisfaction over the 1986 Mizo Peace Accord—which did not fulfil this demand—led the HPC to launch an armed struggle from April 1987, marked by peak violence around 1991, including abductions of tea executives and widespread extortion attempts.

A Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was eventually signed between HPC and the Mizoram Government in July 1994, creating the Sinlung Development Council, after which 308 militants surrendered.

However, disagreements over the implementation of the MoS led to the formation of HPC-D, which continued armed operations in pockets of the region.

Police from both Dima Hasao and Cachar districts are jointly investigating the circumstances leading to the encounter and the alleged extortion attempt.