TURA, July 25: Politics has so deeply infiltrated valid issues concerning the Garo Hills that one’s attempt towards progress is deemed a threat by another.

This can be best gauged from the catastrophic sequence of events that unfolded on “Mayhem Monday” when talks for the Tura Winter Capital and the roster system that was progressing between the ACHIK organization and the Chief Minister was disrupted by a group of trouble mongers, led by a few leaders having leanings towards some opposition parties, who encouraged a mob to go on a vandalism spree.

The mob, some of whom were extra charged with intoxicants, and others having “die-hard” leanings to some political groups opposed to the current ruling dispensation had a field day damaging public property, destroying public vehicles and pelting stones using catapults to cause injuries on a multitude of people.

The attack has put paid to any further dialogue on the two core issues as the peaceful protest with a hunger strike was hijacked by a selected few that had political interests to do so.

CM cast aside security to meet ACHIK

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s dramatic decision to cast aside the safety of the Tura Circuit house, where the meeting was earlier scheduled to take place, and reach out to the ACHIK agitators and accept their demand to hold talks within the vicinity of their hunger strike camp has baffled many citizens and also been lauded by his supporters.

“They (ACHIK) had said since they were still on a hunger strike it would have been difficult to leave the site and come all the way to the circuit house. I understood their problems and also wanted to meet with them and listen to their grievances, which is why I drove down to the campsite,” said the chief minister.

The chief minister listened to the demands of the ACHIK delegation and also assured them that discussions would be carried forward and an invitation was further given to the leaders to come up to Shillong to meet with the cabinet and other elected legislators from the rest of the state so that their proposal can be discussed further.

“The two demands need to be taken up in the cabinet and the assembly which is why I have invited them for further talks at a higher level,” said Conrad K Sangma.

No innocent bystander spared by attackers 

It was not just the security forces who bore the brunt of the attacks. An elderly woman, in her late 70s’ who happened to witness the chaotic scenes was left with serious facial injuries caused by the stone pelting. So too was a gentleman in his late 60s who had come to hear the good news of the winter capital, only to return in bandages after being another victim of the stone pelting.

The attacks were deliberate as sections of the crowd that gathered outside the Commissioner of Divisions office in Dakopgre Tura had come well prepared, while the chief minister was inside engaging in a dialogue with the ACHIK leaders who had been on a hunger strike in support of Tura as a winter capital.

Stones, catapults used for causing bodily harm and even death on victims had been smuggled inside as were inflammable items like gasoline.

These were used to devastating impact during the attack. Vehicles parked on the sides of the road were set ablaze, multitude of government and private vehicles witnessed total destruction of their windshield, glass windows and other parts by the marauding groups of men, many of them in the prime of their youth.

Betrayer tag while talks underway 

The attempt to disrupt, and if possibly destroy the dialogue between the government and the ACHIK group, was evident even before talks had concluded.

Barely half an hour had crossed into the discussions, that a group of instigators in the crowd began fanning the flames of hatred. Accusing the ACHIK leaders who had gone inside to discuss with the chief minister as betrayers, they began spewing venom and even went to the extent of threatening the ACHIK leaders with assault and extermination.

“We don’t know who these people are. They were never here for the past two weeks while our hunger strike was taking place. Only today we have seen them congregate outside our camp as we prepared to debate with the government,” a shocked ACHIK leader and former Meghalaya bureaucrat Laben Ch Marak told media persons.

But the concealed scenes were slowly opening up as the evening stretched with more aggression and hatred being spun by the leaders that included a mahila woman leader of a political party, among others.

In the end, it was an all out attack on the delegation, the authorities and any and everyone who happened to be within the vicinity of the complex where the meeting was taking place.

The widespread arson attacks and targeting of the very people who had been fighting for the establishment of the winter capital has now destroyed what little progress was being made into the issue.

ACHIK leaders issued threats

Threats of attacks against the very leaders of ACHIK who went on a hunger strike by instigators of the mob attack have shocked Tura and Garo Hills.

At the peak of the commotion taking place on the road, ACHIK leaders Laben Ch Marak and Garoland State movement Committee vice chairman Balkarin Marak, both of whom had endured days of hardship by continuing their hunger strike for close to 14 days, had tried to pacify the agitators and make them see reason. They came close to being manhandled and security forces barely managed to get them out of the clutches of the anti-social elements.

In the end, all those who participated in the hunger strike, including lady advocate Barnita Marak, as well as the delegation who went to have a dialogue with the chief minister had to seek shelter inside the venue building as the incited mob let loose a volley of stones, broken bottles and other sharp objects towards those holed up in the office complex.

Camp burnt down

The threats of physical harm were not just centered on the ACHIK leaders who had gone on a fast. The camp site where they conducted the hunger strike for many days was also targeted by the mob that burnt it down during the chaos on Monday evening.

The ACHIK leaders have now called off their hunger strike in the face of the onslaught by the unruly mob.

Ambulance carrying injured victims not spared by rowdy mob

The inhuman manner in which the mob attacked innocent people and security forces was gruesome and the icing on the cake for the criminals was an attack on an ambulance carrying several of the injured from the venue where the attacks took place.

Several police personnel, including a woman police who sustained a hand fracture from the mob attack were left with just the basic first aid treatment inside the Commissioner of Divisions office for more than three hours as the attackers relentlessly pelted stones using catapults refusing to allow anyone to come out.

When the road was finally cleared by riot police an ambulance managed to make its way inside to carry all the injured personnel.

However, as the ambulance was making its way to Tura civil hospital, fragments of the mob that had gathered near ITI complex and Araimile attacked the ambulance, pelting stones and attempting to block it from moving forward. Timely arrival of police reinforcements helped the ambulance to finally reach its destination with the victims.

Dozens of broken chairs, burning tyres, entire stretches of roads strewn with broken bottles and stones, vehicles with windshield and glasses missing due to stone pelting and a night curfew ended what can be termed the longest night of the year.

Also Read: Tura Violence: Conrad assures to take action against perpetrators, says someone planned this

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