Guwahati: Amnesty International has called upon government authorities in Arunachal Pradesh to conduct a prompt, impartial and independent criminal investigation into the killing of protesters in police firing in the monastery town of Tawang in the northeastern state on May 2 last.
“Firing live ammunition into a crowd when there is no apparent threat to life amounts to excessive use of force. This loss of life cannot be justified,” said Abhirr VP, Senior Campaigner, Amnesty International India.
“The police must use lethal force intentionally only as a last resort, when it is strictly unavoidable and in order to protect life.
They must always distinguish between peaceful protesters and those using violence. Any police personnel found to have used excessive force must be held accountable,” he said in a communiqué issued on Thursday. On the afternoon of May 2, a group of monks and people from the Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF), a group campaigning for ecologically sensitive development, gathered outside the Tawang police station to protest against the arrest of Buddhist monk Lobsang Gyatso, the secretary of the SMRF.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Kameng Dolo, who also hold the Home portfolio, on suspended Tawang Deputy Commissioner Duly Kamduk, Superintendent of Police (SP) Anto Alphanse and Officer In Charge (OC) of Tawang Police Station, Lam Dondhup for their ‘inept’ handling of the tense situation in Tawang. Dolo informed that the state government had appointed a one-man magisterial enquiry committee headed by Hage Khoda, Commissioner (Agriculture) to conduct enquiry into the police firing at Tawang on May 2. The committee will submit the report within 4 weeks.
