A day after the Assam police stopped construction of a village godown at Mallangkona Salbari village of West Khasi Hills and assaulted several villagers, four pressure groups from Garo Hills have taken up the matter with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today.
In a memorandum to Sangma, the FKJGP Garo Hills Zone, Association for Democracy and Empowerment (ADE), Federation of Achik Freedom (FAF) and Achik Youth Welfare Organisation (AYWO) said the the incident is an attempt by Assam police to flex their muscles in the border areas especially in Mallangkona village which falls under the Hima Nonglang.
Demanding police security in the village, the four pressure groups also asked the chief minister to allow uninterrupted construction of community godown at the Mallangkona Salbari Lower Primary School and Mallangkona Baptist Church which is a property owned by the community.
They also demanded compensation for the nine villagers including three women who were beaten up by Assam police and deployment of a platoon of Meghalaya Police in the affected area so as to deter further aggression from Assam police.
The pressure groups also asked Sangma to trace the whereabouts of Solendro Sangma and his son Randel Marak and their belongings which included five cows and Rs 90,000 cash and to bring them back to the safety of their homes.
The pressure groups said a team of drunken Assam police came to the spot yesterday on a complaint filed by some individuals related to their personal matters.
“However, when inquiring on the issue the Assam police saw one elderly woman who was holding a sickle as she was coming from her work in the paddy fields and assumed her as a threat and started physically beating her and when other villagers came to her rescue the Assam police started assaulting everybody indiscriminately. One fails to understand how a team of police (three jeep loads to be precise) can be intimidated by an elderly woman who was only carrying a sickle for her work if not for the allegations that the police were all drunk,” the pressure groups said.
They also alleged that the All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU) has also started harassing the people living in Mallangkona area by different means taking advantage of the fact that due to bad road connectivity from the side of Meghalaya and also due to the geographical location of Mallangkona village, the people of the adjoining villages have to go to the markets in Assam to meet their daily needs and other necessities “thereby, making the people of this villages vulnerable to the different agents of Assam”.
The pressure groups alleged that one such agents is the All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU) which along with the Assam Police has yesterday detained a father-son duo namely Solen Sangma and Ranbel Marak and their five cows which they have purchased from Duphdura market along with cash of Rs 90,000.
“The whereabouts of the father and son and their belongings is unknown to their families and all until the writing of this letter,” the pressure groups said adding that wrongful confinement, arrest or detention by police for more than 24 hours without informing any family member or well wishers is violation of the D K Basu guidelines issued by the Supreme Court of India.
