Meghalaya police did not use any force but fled to avoid any untoward incident.
The statement came from West Jaiñtia Hills Superintendent of Police, Chemphang Syrti after a video of the police personnel running for their lives in Lapangap village has gone viral.
However, Syrti, has clarified that on that day, while the Meghalaya police team went to conduct an enquiry into the information received about setting up of a shed by Assam police in an area which the Karbi people claimed to be well within Assam, a mob from Assam side came to charge the Meghalaya Police team and demanded that they should go back as the area falls well within Assam.
“The mob later turned unruly and started pelting stones and used catapults to chase the team,” the SP stated. He said there is no clear demarcation of Assam-Meghalaya boundary in that area and hence the police retreated to a certain location and “did not resort to using any force to avoid any untoward incident.”
Syrti said crowd from the Assam remained on the ground which they claimed to be within Assam and stopped charging the team. He said later Assam police reached the spot and controlled the crowd. “Likewise, the crowd from the Meghalaya side was controlled from not proceeding further into the area of difference,” he added.
Lapangap village bordering Karbi Anglong district and West Jaiñtia Hills district of Meghalaya is tensed as Lapangap with the Pnar villagers remaining alert following the recent incident of Karbis uprooting of tree saplings planted by Lapangap villagers.
It may be mentioned that the first complaint was lodged with the West Jaiñtia Hills Deputy Commissioner in July that a group of people from Karbi Anglong accompanied by Assam police allegedly destroyed thousands of tree saplings planted at a place along the fringes of Tahpat village from a scheme through the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority.
