GUWAHATI: Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has appealed to the Meghalaya government to arrest all those involved in the attack on Khasi Students Union members at Ichamati on Friday and launch a combing operation “to evict illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” from the area.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Sunday, Thomas Passah, spokesperson, KHNAM central executive committee, said that while eight persons were arrested so far, “but from video footage of the incident, we assume that there would be between 80 and 100 people who were seen to be involved in the incident.”
“We condemn the attack in no uncertain terms and appeal to the Meghalaya government to immediately arrest all those involved in the incident and to subsequently launch a combing operation to drive out the illegal settlers from Ichamati and Haat Bazar areas (Shella constituency),” Passah said.
“Besides, a proper scrutiny of the border areas where a large population of such settlers from the neighbouring country have settled, was the need of the hour for the Meghalaya government,” he said.
Asked about the violence spreading to Shillong a day after the incident with one person stabbed to death by masked goons and several others injured, he said that the party does not support violence in any form by anyone.
“However, the incidents in Shillong were not isolated and all linked to the Ichamati assault that resulted in the death of a Khasi youth. The incidents are an outcome of anger and what had happened at Ichamati. So we want the state government to step in and take all possible measures, without suppressing the tribal people, to control the situation at the earliest,” Passah said.
He also said that the tribal people of Meghalaya are peace loving and prefer peaceful co-existence with the non-tribal people who have been living in the state for decades now.
The KHNAM leader further said that if the state government plays a passive role in “flushing out all the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” from the Ichamati-Haat Bazar area, then NGOs and civil society organizations, including parties like KHNAM would have to take measures to free the area from such illegal settlers.