SHILLONG: As Shillong city witnessed large scale violence for the last four consecutive days, it was the personnel of Shillong Police who had to bear the brunt of stones thrown at them and arson attempts, finally managed to bring the situation under control after tremendous hard work and restraint.
“Meghalaya police did their job with one hand tied behind their back” was the observation of GOC 101 Area Lt Gen DS Ahuja even as he had lauded the state police and CRPF personnel for performing their duties with utmost restraint.
As the violence flared up on Thursday evening in Motphran, it was seen that police personnel were being attacked with stones and they were asked to observe restrain.
The police personnel tried their best to disperse the protestors for four consecutive days and nights despite that they were criticized for entering residential areas and bursting tear shells as it created fear psychosis among the residents.
A cop who was deployed in the area on the request of anonymity said that nothing was impossible for police.
Admitting that there were initial hiccups with the police deployment when the clashes broke out, he, however said that everything was streamlined from the second day onwards and police received full support from everyone be it the department or the district administration.
As the city was under tight grip of fear, a visit to Mopthran and nearby areas by a group of journalists at 2 AM in one of the nights following the breakout of clashes saw that a group of tired cops were taking naps in the verandahs of shops while others stood guard protecting their domain.
Speaking on the matter, East Khasi Hills SP, Davis Marak said that this was a part of their job and the protestors were not their enemies but their own people.
He said that police were often vilified as brutal but Shillong Police had shown that it was not brutal and it had done its job based on the situation
“We are here only to see that peace and harmony is brought as early as possible and we were neutral and we don’t take sides and we are mandated to go as per the law,” Marak said
Marak informed that more than 100 police personnel were injured in the clashes and some of them seriously.
He also revealed that there was a standoff between police and protestors on Monday when negotiations were going on and suddenly it started raining stones on the police and in the melee, 5-10 people who were the leaders of the protestors were seriously injured when the stones of the protestors hit them.
“We pulled them out from the crowd and gave them first aid and we also let them go since we know that they were not involved,” Marak added
Asserting that the job of the police is to ensure security of each and every citizen, he also said that police did not showed any favour to the other party.
During the four days of standoff, the Shillong Police used tear shells and even resorted to lathi charge on some occasion based on the requirement of the situation.
