Tura: Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, PHE minister Marcusie Marak along with senior officials of the state government and leaders of the protesting group led by ACHIK, were stuck inside the premises of the Mini Secretariat at Tura after protesters turned violent and attacked the secretariat on Monday.
At least 5 police personnel were injured till the writing of this report, as thousands of protesters pelted stones at the Secretariat. Night curfew has been imposed in Tura town with immediate effect.
CM Sangma announced Rs 50,000 each for the police personnel who were injured while on duty and assured that all medical expenses will be borne by the state government.
The violence also led to the damage of an ambulance that was posted for the service of the hunger strikers and was later burnt. The pandal where the protest was being held was also set on fire.
Following reports of violence, a large contingent of policemen as well as CRPF personnel rushed to the site. To quell the violence, tear gas shells were thrown to disperse the crowd but that seemed to have had little effect on the situation.
More than a thousand ‘vested interest’ persons, as per the organizers, were behind the violence.
ACHIK has been on a 13-day hunger strike over the twin demands of setting up a Winter Capital in the town in Tura as well as the clearance of backlog of jobs meant for the Garo community.
The reason behind the violence that trapped the chief minister inside his office, could not be ascertained so far.
Sources who were stuck at the CMO office in Tura informed that a meeting presided by the CM began at 3:30 PM wherein a partial solution was worked out. The meeting ended at around 6 PM. However, just before the meeting concluded, an agitation broke out with protesters sloganeering and rubbishing the current NPP led government.
The NGO members were asked to speak to the agitating groups, but the organisers returned saying that they were not aware of most of the groups, and that their words were not being heard.
The CM was trapped within the premises when the violence began. At least 3 policemen, 1 policewoman and a woman home guard were injured during the violence.
“I am still here overseeing matters. As a lot of our people have been injured, I don’t want to leave them in this condition. The situation is improving and hopefully normalcy will resume,” said the CM during a conversation with a news channel.
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Meanwhile following reports of violence, shops in other parts of the town of Tura closed down immediately.
“We didn’t venture outside as we too could be attacked if we did so. The situation has been relaxing a little with only a handful of protesters still lingering on,” said one of the media persons who was at the CMO premises to cover the meeting.
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