Shillong, Aug 18: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has urged the unidentified men to return the weapons they took on August 15 even as he has assured that their anonymity will be maintained.

At the same time, the government is working with local heads and NGOs, especially from Mawlai area to bring back normalcy to the city.

It may be mentioned that the police officials who abandoned their weapons have been suspended and an investigation is being carried out on what exactly happened. Out of the four police officials, one of them ran away with his weapons while three deserted them at the spot.

The miscreants took the weapons as well as a police vehicle (Mahindra Scorpio) and went around around city brandishing the weapons, and later set the vehicle ablaze.

Asked if he had assured that no action will be taken, Sangma said that anonymity will be maintained and the interest of the state is to retrieve the weapons.

“The situation and the circumstances under what happened, one doesn’t know very clearly, so for us to simply jump into the aspect of saying that they were going with the intention of grabbing the weapons would not be correct at this point of time. We are more concerned that the safety of the people is there,” added Sangma.

As for the policemen abandoning their weapons, the CM remarked that for a policeman his weapon is as good as his body and that an officer can never leave his weapon behind at any cost.