Tura: Meghalaya government is contemplating release of ex gratia payment to the family of a trader from Assam who was abducted along with his grandson inside Garo Hills and later murdered and his body dumped near Tura.
The whereabouts of the grandson remain untraced.
On Monday a joint co-ordination meeting was held between officials from Garo Hills and Assam at Monabari police outpost in South West Garo Hills bordering Mankachar in Assam.
The meeting was necessitated due to tension in the area after the body of 75-year-old Abdul Mannan was found at Damalgre, between Tura and Garobadha on Sunday morning.
Mannan was abducted along with his 12-year-old grandson when he went to check on a cashew plantation at Kumligaon village of Ampati, a day earlier.
His body was found at Damalgre with a gunshot wound to the head.
Tension ran high in the Mankachar area after Mannan’s body was brought by police to the village of Kulaghat in Assam for burial.
Villagers vented their anger on police by pelting stones and police had a trying time controlling the crowd.
With the abducted 12-year-old child remaining untraced and simmering tension continuing to engulf the area a joint coordination meet was necessitated.
Leading the joint coordination meeting was Meghalaya Additional DGP Y.C. Modi and present were district SPs Aditya Goenka from Ampati and Mukesh Singh from Tura, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi and Additional DC P.K. Boro from South West Garo Hills.
From the Assam side, the SP of Mankachar, SDO (Civil) of Hatsingimari and other magistrates attended.
During the meeting both sides stressed on the need to beef up security on either side of the inter-state border and intensifying of police patrolling to check criminal activities.
Paying of compensation for the family of the murdered trader was also agreed upon from Meghalaya side and modalities would be worked out to hand over the ex gratia at the earliest.
Criminal gangs having access to sophisticated weapons have been terrorizing the inter-state border for quite some time. Besides the abduction of Mannan and his grandson, two other missing traders remain untraced since the last couple of weeks.
