Border dispute: Assam forest office torched, cars burnt in Meghalaya

PTI

Mukroh/Guwahati, November 23

A group of villagers from Meghalaya allegedly vandalised and burnt down a forest office in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district following the killing of six persons in violence that occurred in a disputed area along the border between the two states, officials claimed on Wednesday.

At least two vehicles, one in Mukroh village where the violence took place on Tuesday and another in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, were set ablaze by a mob, they said. Armed with machetes, rods and sticks, residents of the village allegedly gathered in front of a beat office under the Kheroni Forest Range in Assam along the inter-state border on Tuesday night and set the structure on fire, the officials said.

The mob vandalised the forest office and torched properties such as furniture, documents and motorcycles parked in the complex, one of the officials said. However, no injury to the forest personnel posted there has been reported so far. The villagers had left the area before a team of Assam policemen and other security personnel reached the spot, he said. An Assam Government vehicle that was found abandoned at Mukroh village was torched by locals, another official said. The influential Khasi Students’ Union took responsibility for the torching of the forest beat office and the Assam Government vehicle at Mukroh and alleged that the MDA dispensation in Meghalaya failed to protect its citizens.

Members of the students’ union held demonstrations at the Ialong Civil Hospital where the bodies of all the six persons were brought for post-mortem examination and demanded that those responsible for the killing be handed over to the Meghalaya Police.

Following reports of attacks on vehicles from Assam in Meghalaya, the Assam Police continued to advise car owners to avoid entering the neighbouring state for safety. At various points to enter Meghalaya from Assam, including at Guwahati and Cachar district, the police personnel put up barricades and asked people not to travel to the hill state in a vehicle bearing a number plate from Assam.

In a tweet tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam CM Himanta Sarma, Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, whose party is an ally of the BJP, complained that the Assam Police and forest guards “entered Meghalaya and resorted to unprovoked firing”.

Assam Police officials, however, asserted that the truck was intercepted in West Karbi Anglong district of the state by a forest department team and a mob from Meghalaya had later attacked the forest guards and policemen from the state, which led to firing by the Assam side to bring the situation under control. Five of the six killed at Mukroh village were Meghalaya residents and one was an Assam forest guard, Sangma said.

The Himanta Biswa Sarma government in Assam also said it has transferred the district SP, and suspended the officer-in-charge of Jirikinding Police Station and the Forest Protection Officer of Kheroni range.

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