Deepak Singh
Shillong, Sept 30: It was 18 years back that on this fateful day, 9 innocent souls from Garo Hills were lost to the bullets of police. The day has come to be known as the ‘Black Friday’, the darkest chapter in the history of the state and Garo Hills.
Hub News revisits the 30th September, 2005, where four teenage students were killed by the police in Tura and five in Williamnagar during a protest over MBOSE at Tura and Williamnagar fields.
The genesis of the protest
Thousands had gathered at Chandmari playground in Tura in West Garo Hills and at Rongrenggre playground in Williamnagar in East Garo Hills to protest against the government’s decision to bifurcate the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE), headquartered at Tura. This decision was apparently arrived at after the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) had put pressure on the government to move MBOSE from Tura to Shillong.
The Garos had for long been aggrieved about getting a step-motherly treatment by the government since the creation of the state in 1972; since Shillong was far away for the region’s populace and one had to travel via Assam to reach the State’s capital, a full day’s journey. MBOSE remained the only government institution with headquarters in the Garo Hills. If this was also taken away, the Garo community felt they would be further alienated and lose what little political power they had.
The Garo Civil Societies resisted this move. But when it became clear that the government had made its mind to bifurcate the Board, the Garo Students’ Union (GSU) and the Garo Hills Citizens’ Forum (GHCF) spearheaded the protests with mass strikes and non-cooperation movements.
The Day – Black Friday
The twin rallies in Tura and Williamnagar were supposed to be peaceful. People from all parts of Garo Hills had gathered at the two venues on September 30, 2005 – Chandmari playground in Tura in West Garo Hills and Rongrenggre playground in Williamnagar.
However, the protests had been declared “unlawful” by both the district administrations, which led to the arrest of Sengrak Marak, who was spearheading the agitation. Following his arrest, the crowd started throwing stones on police personnel and district officials at Chandmari playground.
Police resorted to lathi-charge and tear gas shelling and sprayed water cannons on the protestors to disperse them. In the midst of this chaos, police fired at them, leaving four people dead. Later, in 2007, a judicial inquiry, led by retired Gauhati High Court judge D.N. Chowdhury, found the police at fault for the firing in Tura as it noted that they fired when the protestors were “quietly retreating from the field”.
In Williamnagar too, the rally had turned violent, and in similar police action, 5 people were shot dead. But the judicial inquiry into the incident by Justice (retd) D.N. Baruah found the actions of the district admiration and police to be justifiable.
The Aftermath
Following the incidents, there was massive uproar in Garo Hills, especially in Tura, that saw prolonged curfews.
On the first anniversary of the shooting incidents, a cenotaph inscribed with the names of the shooting victims was unveiled in Tura’s Chandmari. A similar monument was unveiled in Williamnagar.
Every year, memorial services are held in Williamnagar, Tura and in the rest of Garo Hills to mark the day.
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