From Our Correspondent
TURA: The West Garo Hills district administration has withdrawn night curfew along the entire border belt including Dalu town with affect from Sunday morning, 15 days after it was imposed in the light of unprecedented violence that led to the murder of a 40-year old woman and burning down of as many as five houses.
The West Garo Hills district administration has also ordered a magisterial probe into the Dalu mob attack. The magisterial probe would be conducted by Ram Singh, IAS, ADM within two weeks time, it is learnt. The probe will go into various aspects including chance of a deep rooted conspiracy leading to incitement of violence and failure on the part of police to prevent the incident from taking place.
Meanwhile, the district administration decided to do away with the night curfew after taking into consideration all aspects including the return of normalcy and the reported arrest of people who instigated the violence.
Night curfew had been in place from 8 pm to 5 am ever since mobs of several hundred people, allegedly instigated by vested interest groups, attacked selective houses in the area on June 9. The armed groups hacked and killed one Jayanti Sangma (40) wife of Martin Sangma who was also pregnant at the time of her death.
Her four children were spared a gruesome death after their mother who hid them in a bamboo groove before she was attacked.
Meanwhile, a team of Meghalaya State Women’s Commission visited the affected family members. The delegation led by Gamchi Timre Marak and Angela Ingty met Late Jayanti’s husband Martin and their four children. Based on the sequence of events, the women’s commission has filed a suo moto case against those who perpetrated the criminal act.
“We have taken cognizance of the matter and will pursue the issue with the government to ensure speedy trial against those who committed such a gruesome attack,” said the Commission members.
The family of Late Jayanti Sangma is currently living with relatives and the state government has not announced any ex-gratis payment to them despite the incident having taken place more than two weeks ago. The only consolation appears to be the quick arrest of the main perpetrators of the crime including a lady nokma identified as Nikme D Sangma whose clan had been staking claim to the disputed land.
The mob had allegedly been instigated by those angered over a possible compensation for land to the victim’s family for opening of a new border outpost within the disputed plot.
The failure on the part of the Dalu police in containing the violence from spiraling out of control has also been questioned by the Women’s Commission as the local police failed to check the assembly of several hundred people who were armed with machetes and other lethal weapons even as they went from one house to another systematically looking for their potential victims.