TURA: Barring Baghmara town in the southern district and a portion of the western plain belt region the rest of Garo Hills was paralysed by a day-long bandh call given by Garoland statehood activists even as attempts were made by the administration to contain the shutdown on Thursday.
Four district headquarters — Tura, Williamnagar, Ampati and Resubelpara — fell victim to the closure announcement given by the Garo Hills State Movement Committee which is seeking a separate state and demanding the unconditional release of its activists including general secretary Augustine Marak who have been moved out to Jowai district jail after their arrest for the Tura DC office incident where government employees were manhandled.
Ahead of Thursday’s bandh there had been anticipation the closure could be minimized following ‘difference in opinion’ within some student and social groups that had reportedly not been in favour of the Garoland stir.
The central executive committee of the Garo Students’ Union (GSU) and its allies including the FKJGP had categorically stated that they wouldn’t be party to the closure on Thursday.
The district administration in Tura had also tried to prevent the bandh from taking place with Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi holding a meeting with citizens, educationists, church elders and NGO leaders on Tuesday urging upon the stakeholders to defy the repeated closures plaguing the region.
Assurances of support against the bandh came from various quarters with heads of educational institutions even promising opening up of schools for daylong classes.
However, Thursday morning revealed a completely different picture of Tura as vehicles went off roads, people stayed indoors and shops, business houses, banks, government offices and schools remained closed.
The entire East Garo Hills region including Williamnagar town remained under closure which was a complete reversal of last week’s indefinite bandh call that failed to find any takers in the very same district.
The GSU eastern zone had on Wednesday informed The Shillong Times that it would be lending support to the bandh in protest against the arrest of students by the Tura administration and endorsement of the Garoland demand.
“We are in favour of a separate state for the Garos and we want government to release the students arrested and jailed,” informed GSU general secretary from Williamnagar Rockeyfeller M Sangma.
Baghmara town was the only district headquarter not affected by the Garoland bandh and statehood activists claim that they had decided against shutting it down due to rising shortage of food supply. Baghmara depends heavily on the route through West Garo Hills for the supply of food and other commodities and recent agitations had adversely affected the normal supply.
“We do not know on what grounds they withdrew the bandh but we had a very high turnout of 80 percent attendance in government offices in Baghmara. Chokpot region was partially affected by the closure, but markets did brisk business,” informed deputy commissioner C P Gothmare.
In the plain belt region of West and south West Garo Hills districts, Rajabala and Hallidayganj were as usual open for trade while Mahendraganj, Phulbari, Tikrikilla, Garobadha were closed down.