Senior Congress leader Ampareen Lyngdoh has appealed to the citizens of the state to maintain peace at all costs and urged all political parties to work together to bring normalcy back and not to let any third party from outside to take advantage of the situation.
“I sincerely appeal to all the citizens in the state, especially our youths, to keep calm and not let emotions get the better of us, but to unitedly demand our rights through peaceful means,” Lyngdoh told Highland Post.
The violence could lead to the projection by outside forces, she added, that Meghalaya is unsafe and thus requires President’s Rule. This would be detrimental to the state’s democratic rights “because if President’s Rule is imposed then it will be the end of settling the boundary dispute with Assam, Inner Line Permit (ILP) or the inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule.”
The East Shillong MLA said that the need of the hour is to serve a deadline to complete the judicial inquiry into the killing of Cherishterfield Thangkhiew so that it is not delayed and justice is served at the earliest.
“I also suggest that the peace committee constituted by the government should first try to reach out to the people of Mawlai who have felt this loss (in the death of Thangkhiew) the greatest and where the heartburn is the maximum,” she said.
Lyngdoh was also shocked by the injuries caused last night to a driver of local newspaper Mawphor in Mawlai by the Central Reserve Police Force. Condemning the assault, the MLA said that whenever central forces are used in local law and order situations then every battalion or company of the paramilitary forces should be headed by a state police officer trained to tackle such situations.
“One cannot afford to have a language barrier and communication breakdown and not be able to communicate in such a situation,” she said while questioning whether the state force is so inadequate that outside forces had to be brought in.
Meanwhile, she declined to say much on the resignation of Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui and the Chief Minister’s refusal to accept it till today. However, Lyngdoh was critical of the rushed imposition of curfew in Shillong and its outskirts, saying that time should have been given to the public to shop for essentials, and that shutting down the internet is necessary sometimes but the government needs an exit plan as such a ban cannot continue indefinitely.
