The Central Puja Committee (CPC) has urged the State government to provide security outside the Mahadev Khola Dham following an assault case which was reported on July 24.
Expressing concern and anguish on the manhandling and unprovoked attack on devotees by miscreants at the temple premises, the CPC members during an emergency meeting said, “Such incidents are not common in Meghalaya, known for religious harmony and amity.”
They suggested that since devotees visit the temple throughout the year to perform various rituals, adequate security is a must. The meeting also urged all temple representatives to install CCTV cameras in their individual places of worship and maintain vigil to prevent such incidents in future created by anti-social elements.
Police have arrested five persons, including two juveniles, involved in the assault of a mother and son duo following a dispute over payment for a soft drink at Mahadev Khola.
While police had maintained that the incident is not linked to religious animosity, a Twitter post by an account “Legal Rights Observatory-LRO @LegaILRO” accused the Khasi Students Union (KSU) and the Presbyterian Church for the incident.
The KSU has also lodged an FIR against the Twitter account and said the incident had no connection with the union nor in any manner had its members involved in it.
“Such tweets and posts are being circulated in social media which are totally wrong and misrepresenting. Through such tweets, the object of the Twitter account and the person handling the account is only to disrupt religious harmony and to instigate communal violence between communities,” the KSU said.
