SHILLONG: Three people, including a 73-year-old man, were injured and a few shops damaged as a ‘peaceful’ victory march, which was taken out by KSU activists after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill could not be tabled in Rajya Sabha, turned violent in RR Colony and Rynjah market areas in the city on Wednesday.
The incident took place around 4 pm when the KSU activists, who were travelling in 30 to 40 vehicles and shouting slogans like “go back Bangladeshis”, started pelting stones and assaulted people, police said. They also asked the shopkeepers to down their shutters.
The assaulted victims have been identified as Parindra Das (73) and Bhanbetush Das (51) of RR Colony and Sheik Farman (36) from Nongrim Hills.
They were admitted at Civil Hospital for treatment and later released.
No one has been arrested in connection with the incident.
The SP (City) Steve Rynjah confirmed the incident and said the KSU did not take any permission for taking out the ‘peaceful’ victory march.
The police official contacted KSU president Lambokstarwell Marngar on phone and the response from the students’ body chief was that he was not aware of the incident.
Marngar was in Delhi as part of NESO delegation to drum up support against the CAB.
The violent incident of stone pelting has created panic in the area.
Rynjah said there was an overall alert following the pending issue related to CAB. “We have already deployed security personnel in the vulnerable areas”, he said.
The violent incident took place at a time when the Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, is camping in Delhi along with the leaders of NESO, AASU, KSU and AGP.
Though the new East Khasi Hills district SP Claudia Lyngwa assumed office in the afternoon, she directed the police in Rynjah to keep vigil following the incident.
“We have not arrested anyone but we warned the KSU activists not to create trouble since they have already won their battle against CAB”, Lyngwa said.
Sources said while there were no violent incidents in other parts of the North East over CAB on Wednesday, the incident in the city was an exception.
The general secretary of the KSU, Donald Thabah, denied the allegations of KSU resorting to violence and asserted that the members will not indulge in such action.
“The allegations are not true. Our union members will not do that. Some people are taking advantage of the situation and our members are not involved in it. We are celebrating the achievements made through the efforts of NESO. Even our president (Lambok) is in Delhi and will return tomorrow,” he said.
Thabah said members were overjoyed at the news that the CAB was not even tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
“We decided to take out a victory march to let the people know that everything will be fine and nothing will happen to our people and we will not be overwhelmed by Bangladeshis,” he said.
Thabah added that the members came back to the office and had an interaction with the press as well.
