The Synjuk ki Rangbah Shnong Border Areas have requested the Meghalaya government to post police personnel at Umlaper village in Ri-Bhoi to help prevent Assam from claiming the area.
In a letter to the Chief Minister and Deputy CM on December 3, the SRSBA said that Assam and residents of the state have been demanding that Umlaper and Block 1 and 2 areas that are under dispute be allocated to Assam under the ongoing border talks with Meghalaya.
In September, the Karbi Students Association, Autonomous State Demand Committee and Nepali community held a sit-in in Umlaper to demand that the Khasi community stop their demand to return the Block 1 and 2 areas that were taken away from Khasi-Jaintia Hills in 1951 from Assam.
The Synjuk was of the opinion that the sit-in was in violation of an agreement that there would be no agitational programmes in Block 2, which has been adhered to by the Meghalaya side.
The SRSBA said that Assam plans on setting up administrative and police offices in Umlaper and it feared that this could result in a repetition of a clash between Assam and Meghalaya sides that occurred in 2021 where a Meghalaya police officer was pushed around.
The Synjuk worried that this could play in to the 2023 Meghalaya election where the Umlaper area falls under Mawhati constituency and that the state police are currently posted too far away at Mawlasnai, 20-30km away.
Recently the Meghalaya government promised to post more police on the border with Assam following the Mukroh Massacre late last month.
