JOWAI/SHILLONG: The PSO of Cabinet Minister Kyrmen Shylla was suspended after he and two others assaulted drivers of coal laden trucks from Bhutan bound for Bangladesh in the wee hours on Thursday in West Jaintia Hills.
Curiously, the pistol used by the PSO to attack the truckers went missing.
The action by the police was after the constable Thmubait I Dhar, and his accomplices Chanky Lhuid and Deibormi Lyngdoh were arrested for assaulting truckers around 3.30 am.
One of the truckers filed a complaint with the police resulting in the action against the accused.
The PSO of the minister, who is also the son of a police officer, was attached with SB Security wing (parent Unit 3rd MLP Battalion).
The attack on truckers comes a week after the assault on social activist Agnes Kharshiing and her colleague Amita Sangma who probed illegal coal mining in East Jaintia Hills.
Earlier, though the truck drivers convinced the trio that they were carrying coal from Bhutan to Bangladesh with valid papers, they did not pay heed and instead accused them of telling lies.
According to police sources, the attack was just because the trucks from Bhutan were allowed to transport coal to Bangladesh whereas in Meghalaya the transportation was not allowed.
There were eight trucks loaded with coal for transportation to Bangladesh and on reaching Riat-Turiem near Choice Dhaba in Khliehtyrshi, Jowai, the accused tried to assault all the drivers and two of them sustained head injuries as they were hit with a pistol by the PSO.
The injured drivers are Passang Dorji from Bhutan and Jity Kami from India.
Kami said in his FIR that the coal laden trucks left Bhutan on November 14 and the next day at around 2 am, when they reached Riat-Turiem, three persons in civil dress, who were claiming to be police men, asked them to get out of the trucks.
“One of them took out a pistol and threatened to shoot us and then they started beating us with pistol and lever and we were lined up in front of the trucks”, the FIR said.
Kami said they broke the headlights and indictors of the trucks.
“We were hiding in the jungle for about one and half hours, then we heard voices of people calling us to come out. When we came out, we saw police personnel along with those three persons. We were taken to police station along with the three persons”, the FIR said.
According to one of the drivers, Shacha Wangchuk, a Bhutan national, the route of the transportation of coal was from Bhutan to Bangladesh via Dawki. On their way, they stopped near a dhaba to have food and suddenly, a car stopped there and the occupants pulled the tuckers out at gun point.
“We were hit by a pistol. They kicked and slapped and one person hit us with lever and wrench,” Wangchuk said.
According to the truck driver, they were four people and one of them tried to help the truckers.
Earlier, the accused questioned the truck drivers as to why they should engage in coal transportation despite the NGT ban.
The legal trade has been going on between India and Bhutan and the trucks were to reach Dawki-Tamabil border to transport coal to Bangladesh.
Bhutan coal is supplied to Nepal and Bangladesh after the ban on coal mining was imposed in Meghalaya.
According to eye witnesses, out of fear, the truck drivers fled to the jungle and it was thanks to the intervention of a lady from Ummulong and a few others, who were assisting them for transportation of coal that the truckers who were hiding in the jungle came out.
