Shillong, Jan 31: Militant attacks don’t usually make it to the TSR website, but we couldn’t help but notice that Sunday’s improvised explosive device that rocked Khyndailad was planted at the steps of The Electronic Centre, which has a Shillong Lajong FC connection.
The shop was launched in October 2016 with the idea that a proportion of its profits would be used to finance the running of Lajong. The shop has change a little in the intervening years, including its name (it opened as The Mobile Store), but the relationship with the club apparently remains.
Stairs, that feature the use of Sohra and Nongkrem stone, leading up to the premises were damaged in the IED blast and the store’s signboard was ripped off in the explosion, which was claimed by the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council. Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident.
Despite the damage, it was open for business today, as soon as the police gave the go ahead.
“We have to think out of the box because Indian football clubs do not have the benefit of media rights, merchandising or large sponsorship deals that exist abroad,” SLFC Managing Director and CEO Larsing Ming Sawyan had said in 2016. “Foreign clubs might also have their own sports bars and the like but this is the first club that I know of entering into a venture like this.”
(TSR photo)
