Special Story
To check the increasing burglary cases, rampant bike thefts, and the fact that a lot of bikes are being stolen and smuggled to Bangladesh, the East Khasi Hills District Police has introduced the concept of the Night Hunter — a single officer who travels across the city on a police bike, and yet, long before he is seen, he is heard.
When the night thickens over Shillong and the streets begin to empty into uneasy silence, there is a sound that travels farther than sight — the low, deliberate growl of a police bike cutting through the dark. It does not chase; it announces. And somewhere in that sound, criminals pause, instincts sharpened by fear rather than law, because they know the city is no longer unguarded. They know he is already near.
In a city unsettled by a surge in burglaries and an undercurrent of organised bike thefts — machines disappearing into the night only to be smuggled across borders — an unnamed presence has begun to alter the rhythm of crime. The figure moves without spectacle, without identity, faceless yet feared, slipping through dimly lit roads and silent junctions with a purpose that is neither hurried nor hesitant. Across Shillong, he is known only by a name that now carries both caution and consequence: the Night Hunter.
Not a vigilante, but a solitary extension of the law itself, the Night Hunter operates within a policing system that is tightening its nocturnal grip. His patrol is not merely movement; it is surveillance with intent, a roaming authority that threads through police stations, monitors ground-level enforcement, and ensures that the city’s fragile order does not fracture under the weight of rising offences. With stolen bikes increasingly finding clandestine routes out of the state and into Bangladesh, his presence has emerged as both deterrent and disruption.
Superintendent of Police East Khasi Hills District Vivek Syiem said, “When it comes to Law and order first thing is we intensified our foot patrolling, mobile patrolling. We have nakas at night, if you move around the city at night you will find out Nakas at different junction they do check to prevent any subversive activities, to prevent any theft. Now with rampant bike thefts, lot of bikes are being stolen and smuggled to Bangladesh, Nakas are there and also we have one responsible officer who is called the night hunter and he moves around and also to all the Thanas and supervises the functioning of all the law and order information and arrangements. One officer who moves around the city in the whole city.”
