Shillong, Nov 27: The dorbar chnong of Mukroh village in West Jaintia Hills has demanded the state government to immediately remove the Assam forest beat house from the village and to set up a police outpost for providing adequate protection to the people residing along the inter-state border with Assam.
“We demand the chief minister Conrad K Sangma and his government to speed up the setting up of the police outpost at Mukroh village failing which we can be assured that we will never be able to live in peace,” waheh chnong (headman) of Mukroh Hamboide Sumer told reporters on Saturday night.
“At the same time, we also demand the state government to immediately remove Assam’s forest beat house at Mukroh since it has been the root cause for the problems faced by the people along the inter-state border,” he added.
Sumer said the dorbar chnong of Mukroh has also decided to reject the Assam government’s decision to extend ex-gratia payment to the next of kin of the five Khasi villagers killed in the firing by Assam police on November 22. “We are totally against this decision of the Assam government and will never accept the compensation that it is offering,” he added.
He further informed that the dorbar chnong also expresses strong opposition against the Assam government’s move to erect a bust of its forest guard, who was killed during the firing incident, at Mukroh village. “We along with the families of the victims who were killed and injured in the firing also demanded the chief minister and government of Meghalaya to take stern action against the Assam police and forest guards who were involved in the firing incident,” Sumer said.
He said that there is absolutely no truth in the allegation made by the Assam police and forest guards that the people were armed with lethal weapons on November 22. “Our people were not at all armed with any lethal weapon on that day but the fact is that they (Assam police) had killed their own colleague in the act,” the headman said.
Further, Sumer said that Mukroh village falls under Meghalaya’s West Jaintia Hills District and does not fall under the disputed Block-I area as claimed by Assam. “We have all the documents to prove and substantiate our claims that Mukroh belongs to Meghalaya and is under the jurisdiction of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC),” he stated.
He added, “Mukroh also falls under Nartiang police station and not as claimed by the Assam police that it falls under Jirikinding police station.”
Recalling the unfortunate incident, Sumer said people had gone to demand the immediate release of the three farmers arrested by the Assam police and forest guards on November 22. However, without giving any warning, the Assam police and forest guards opened fire at the people and killed six persons.
He said this is not the first time that Khasi villagers were killed by Assam police and this is because of the failure of the Meghalaya government which is not taking the matter seriously by delaying to set up a police outpost at the border.
