Shillong, July 26: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) on Wednesday lodged a first information report (FIR) against the Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) for trying to incite religious and communal tension between different communities in the state.

This came after the LRO had uploaded a video of the July 24, 2023, incident where a shopkeeper and her son were assaulted and robbed by miscreants. The LRO also alleged in its tweets that the KSU were the ones attacking devotees, priest and women in Mahadev Khola temple and that the attack was instigated by the Presbyterian Church.

The FIR was given by KSU legal affairs secretary James H Mawphniang to the Superintendent of Police (City) Vivek Syiem, urging the authorities to immediately suspend/delete the @LegalLRO twitter accounts for indulging in hate mongering and spreading false information to the public.

The KSU has also demanded the state’s forest department to immediately remove all illegal settlers from Mahadev Khola.

Speaking to reporters after submitting the FIR, KSU general secretary Donald V Thabah said the allegations made by the LRO on an incident, which the KSU has no idea how it happened, is ‘unjustified and baseless’.

He said, “We would like to state that by blaming the Church and by blaming the Union that we are involved in that incident is very wrong as the KSU is not affiliated to any religious groups, be it the Catholic, the Presbyterian or the traditional faiths – we are not related to any of them. The KSU stands for the welfare and the protection and safeguard of the entire Khasi people. So we do not indulge in any activities which might be detrimental to any particular religious groups.”

He however said Meghalaya has been plagued by illegal immigrants since 1971 and till date because “we are bereft of any mechanisms or any laws which will protect tribal communities from the influx of outsiders, like ILP or certain protections like the Article 371 (a) or 371 (g) that are present in Nagaland and Mizoram. We do not have such acts as the Government of India does not provide that.”

“Due to this, the KSU and other organizations have to step in to protect the rights of the minority tribal indigenous community of Meghalaya. With that there are so many conflicts with these illegal immigrants, these outsiders.”

Thabah further stated that with the recent scenario in India, the LRO is trying to bring a religious colour to this issue in which they want to pitch between Hindu and the tribal Christians.

“They want the support from all over India against the tribals not only Meghalaya but the entire North East region. This is very wrong because the community and KSU has been engaging in the fight against illegal immigration in the state and there has never been an instance where a religious place is being attacked or the name of a particular religion is being taken. Usually, we want that we should be protected within our rights so that we will not be overwhelmed and the demographic structure of the state will not change,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the KSU leader also accused the LRO for trying to connect the July 24 incident with the recent demand of the Union to remove illegal settlers from Mahadev Khola. “Because of that complaint, maybe the LRO is trying to connect these two issues which are not related to one another,” he said.

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