Guwahati:
Meghalaya’s Khasi and Jaintia Hills are on high alert after two student union members were arrested on Wednesday following the death of two people in the state last week.
Police arrested Shanborlang Shati and Mesadapbor Skhembil, members of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), in connection with the killing of two men in Ichamati last week after a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The two men were brought to court and remanded in custody for seven days.
The bodies of Ishan Singh and Sujit Dutta were found close to the Bangladesh border and about 80 km from Meghalaya’s capital Shillong. Police have not yet confirmed whether the killings are related to the protest.
A crowd of 300 people led by the KSU gathered at the Sohra police station to protest the arrests and demanded that its cadre not be “hunted down like militants”.
A police vehicle was set on fire after unidentified persons threw a petrol bomb at Shillong police station in Malwai, East Khasi Hills District Police Chief Rituraj Ravi said, adding that the arrests were based on “strong evidence”. “They are protesting the arrests and we have explained that we are investigating the two murders and the law will take its own course,” he said.
The members of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) have written to President Draupadi Murmu about the March 27 killings, claiming that the killings were a “stark reminder of the reign of terror against the non-tribal communities living in Meghalaya.”
“Two innocent Hindus (Ishan Singh and Sujit Dutta) were brutally murdered in Ichamati, a village in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, after an anti-CAA rally. A pressure group organized an anti-CAA rally which led to the murder of two innocent Hindus by unknown miscreants, as widely reported in the media,” the letter said.