Mukroh ground report: ‘Assam Police killed five farmers, not smugglers’

Mukroh, West Jaintia Hills: In the Northeast, a single incident can often push obscure villages into national focus and mostly, for the worse. Last year, it was Oting village in the Mon district of Nagaland. Until December 4, few if any had heard of Oting, But after December 4, the village found itself at the centre of national attention and was almost swarmed by journalists.

A year later, it seems Mukroh village’s turn to face the same.

The village, which has about 600 households, is home to about 5,000 people. Located in West Jaintia Hills and about 100 km from the capital Shillong, residents of Mukroh, at this time of the year, should have been focusing on the harvest season. Instead, they are still trying to make sense of how five of their own, and one forest guard, lost their lives.

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EastMojo was one of the first to arrive in the village on Tuesday evening, hours after the news of the murders had hit the headlines. We found that the security had been beefed up, with a big team of Meghalaya Police keeping vigil.

But it seemed a case of too little, too late.

‘It was supposed to be a regular night’

Budki Sumer, 23- a year-old farmer, told EastMojo only wanted to go to his farm. Instead, they had this harrowing tale to tell our correspondent.

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Sumer narrated that he and four others were returning from the farm around 1 am early Tuesday. Most residents here are farmers, and since it is the harvest season, they are also focused on the same.

Sumer said they were returning in a vehicle with the rice harvested from the field and that this was their second trip. “When we were on the road, we were cornered by the Assam Police since we were behind a truck ferrying timber. They broke our car windshield and then dragged us out of the car. There were five of us. Two managed to escape. The Assam police took our car along with the three of us to the Mokoilum police outpost,” said Sumer.

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Mokoilum comes under the Donka revenue circle in the Karbi Anglong district.

He further stated that the three farmers: Budki Sumer, Daman Bhoi and Peitlang Sumer were handcuffed, clothes removed, and then lathicharged. Sumer added they were beaten despite their request to let go since they were farmers. “We were not even given a glass of water or food to eat. We could only speak in Pnar, pleading with the officials. Around 2 or 3 pm we were released and handed over to Meghalaya Police,” said Sumer.

By the time the West Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police had gone to Mokoilum to seek the release of the three farmers on Tuesday afternoon, the damage had been done, and six people had died. Sumer had no idea what had happened during their detention.

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A violent morning

Like the five farmers, Carnelius Lamin also woke up early in the morning with one aim: to go to his farm. “On the way, we saw the crowd and we decided to take a look at what the commotion was about. The villagers were demanding the police to release the three, it was during that time that the police started firing,” Lamin told EastMojo.

By morning, the news of the arrest of three farmers had reached almost every household and there was visible anger and tension among locals. Member of the District Council of 12 Barato-Mukroh constituency, Aiborlang Shadap, who woke up at 5 am to the news of the arrests. The Mukroh headman informed him that an Assam Police vehicle had entered Meghalaya territory with rifles. Shadap immediately rang the SP to send the police force and told him there had been a clash at Mukroh.

Like Lamin, Shadap also managed to escape the melee unhurt, but five others, Nikhasi Dhar 60, Thal Shadap, 43, Six Talang, 53, Shirup Sumer, 39 and Tal Nartiang 39, were less lucky.

All five were farmers and were heading toward their farm which is about 3 kilometres away from the village and ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time.

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“When I reached the spot,” Shadap recalled, “I noticed that the crowd was angry and despite the series of appeals I had made to both sides to calm down it seemed pointless. The dialogue went on for over two hrs. I sensed that things were going to go out of control that was when I moved toward the police vehicle. A few minutes later, Assam Police fired. I ran towards the jungle and took shelter till things were normal,” mentioned Shadap.

But Shadap also pointed fingers at the Meghalaya Police. Despite numerous phone calls made to the district administration they took nearly 4-5 hours to turn up with the forces, he claimed.

Timber smuggling is an issue, not the cause

Locals have not missed how everyone has blamed the death on timber smuggling, with some reports even suggesting that timber smugglers had been killed. They alleged that the forest guard and Assam Police resorted to extortion for the movement of any materials.

Several sources corroborated this claim to EastMojo. They said that a truck loaded with allegedly illegally-felled timber was intercepted by Assam forest guards since the driver did not pay. The truck continued to move towards Mukroh village, but after the forest guards from Assam shot at the tyre of the truck, the truck couldn’t move any further. The source informed that the truck driver fled into the jungle, fearing that he might be shot. “This must have irked the Assam Police, who noticed the Maruti car behind and then arrested the three. In many past instances, when the forest guard seizes a truck, one will have to pay nearly Rs 1 lakh to get the release of their trucks,” mentioned the source.

There was timber, and a truck was involved, but it had nothing to do with locals and the driver was not from Mukroh. Now, of course, it does not matter.

Locals worried, demand added security.

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Locals are yet to recover from the tragedy and feel that a sense of safety and security can only be brought back once the police outpost is set up at Mukroh.

The Meghalaya Police camped at the spot and were also patrolling the entire night to ensure no further clashes. When this correspondent visited the spot on Wednesday morning, the police were trying to figure out how to tow the burnt Assam pickup truck. Our correspondent then proceeded to visit the Forest Guard office which had been reportedly burnt down. On the way, the correspondent saw piles of big tree logs lying on the road. The villagers had cut down five trees to block vehicles from passing through. The Assam Forest Guard office is about 3 kilometres from Mukroh village and the office lies inside the Mukroh area itself.

This office, Shadap informed, was set up in 2004. The Police mentioned that when the mob were burning the Assam Police vehicle, another group of locals had set the forest office ablaze. What remained of the office included the guards’ personal belongings, shattered glasses and a burnt motorcycle. 

A few kilometres away, six people lay covered in blood. 

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