SHILLONG, April 10: Soon after a labourer was killed by a group of miscreants here on Wednesday, Cabinet Minister Alexander L. Hek said the government and the police should take stringent action against those who take the law into their hands.
He said such criminal activities, giving the state a bad name, should not be tolerated.
“The victim was a labourer working in someone’s house to earn a living. How can you kill innocent people?” Hek said, admitting that criminals have been getting away with murder as the government has not been serious about catching the culprits involved.
He said such incidents have shamed Meghalaya and promised to write to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to “do something about” so that they do not happen again.
BJP legislator Sanbor Shullai condemned the killing of non-tribal labourers in separate incidents at Ichamati and Mawlai Mawroh.
He said such incidents will not only damage the state’s image but also that of society as a whole. “The government should take strict action against anyone involved, tribal or non-tribal, without being biased. The law is equal for all,” he said.
Shullai said he would soon meet Shah regarding the frequent killings of innocent people. Appealing to various organisations to maintain peace during their protests, he said he would appeal to the Centre to deploy more central forces in the region.
The Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) on Wednesday condemned the Mawlai Mawroh violence, which resulted in the death of a labourer and injury to two others.
TUR member Angela Rangad said the Mawlai Mawroh incident was close on the heels of the Ichamati killings and the threats to labourers at Sohra.
“Targeted violence such as this is a shame to our society and all right-thinking citizens of the state need to condemn them and call for the swift arrest of the perpetrators. We also need to call out our representatives and pressure group leaders who use such incidents to fuel narratives of hate by questioning the processes of law that book the criminals,” she said.
According to her, the people in power need to be mindful that remaining indifferent to such instances of targeted violence will allow for a culture of impunity and violence to set in and a takeover by criminally minded groups.
Rangad said the measure of civilisation is how it treats its minorities. “If we, as a community, do not condemn and isolate our local majoritarian violence and communal ideas, we have no moral right to be anxious about majoritarian violence and discourses elsewhere in India. Silence about criminality and Mafiosi behaviour is not an option,” she said.
