New Delhi: A mob attacked the Meghalaya chief minister’s office (CMO) in Tura on Monday (July 24) while chief minister Conrad Sangma was in a meeting with some local leaders, Deccan Herald reported.
The mob pelted stones at the CMO injuring five policemen and shattering the building’s windows. Sangma was inside the building when the attack took place, the report said.
The chief minister had invited local organisations who were demanding Tura’s designation as Meghalaya’s winter capital and the proper implementation of a 51-year-old job reservation policy. Cabinet ministers and other stakeholders were also present at the meeting, the Hindu reported.
A mob of more than a hundred people gathered outside the CMO about three hours into the meeting with the agitating groups, the Hindu report said. The police fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob after the five policemen got injured.
“What happened today was very unfortunate. We have the entire video recording of the people who instigated [the violence] and necessary action will be taken according to the law,” the Hindu quoted Sangma as saying.
“I am unable to understand how this chaos broke out. We have been organising a peaceful hunger strike over the last few days. The sloganeering and stone-pelting were started by anti-social elements whom we have never seen before,” Laben Ch. Marak, a leader of one of the organisations, was quoted by the Hindu as saying.
Sangma later released a video message where he said that the talks were almost over, with an agreement to meet in Shillong for further discussions, when they heard sloganeering outside. The NGO leaders went outside to calm the mob but realised that they weren’t members of their organisations.
“After the discussion was almost over, we heard sloganeering from outside. I asked them not to create any scene out here. Their leaders (of the NGOs in the talks) went outside to speak to the people. They came back and said they did not know them,” Sangma said, adding that these unidentified individuals were trying to create some kind of trouble.
Sangma announced financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to those injured and said that the state government would also bear the treatment cost.