Amnesty wants inquiry into Tawang police firing

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, May 5

Amnesty International has called upon the authorities in Arunachal Pradesh for a prompt, impartial and independent criminal investigation into the killing of two protesters in police firing in the monastery town of Tawang on May 2.

“Firing live ammunition into a crowd when there is no apparent threat to life amounts to excessive use of force. This loss of life cannot be justified,” said Abhirr VP, Senior Campaigner, Amnesty International India.

“The police must use lethal force intentionally only as a last resort, when it is strictly unavoidable and in order to protect life. They must always distinguish between peaceful protesters and those using violence. Any police personnel found to have used excessive force must be held accountable,” he said in a communiqué issued today.

On May 2, a group of monks and people from the Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF), a group campaigning for ecologically sensitive development, gathered outside the Tawang police station to protest the arrest of Buddhist monk Lobsang Gyatso, the secretary of the SMRF.

Meanwhile, Deputy CM Kameng Dolo, who also holds the Home portfolio, suspended Tawang Deputy Commissioner Duly Kamduk, Superintendent of Police (SP) Anto Alphanse and Officer in Charge (OC) of Tawang Police Station, Lam Dondhup for their “inept” handling of the tense situation in Tawang.

Dolo said the state government had appointed a one-man magisterial inquiry panel headed by Hage Khoda, Commissioner (Agriculture), to probe the police firing. The committee will submit the report within four weeks.

Quoting Lama Jha, a monk from the Tawang monastery who was present at the protest, Amnesty International India stated: “When we were protesting outside the police station, the police called three people and let them inside through a small gate. The police then beat them up. The crowd got angry. We started pushing the gate. Some hurled stones. And suddenly the police opened fire at us without any warning. Some of us ran for our lives.