The situation has eased in Shillong today and curfew will be lifted from 8 am to 3 pm but internet will remain suspended.
Latest News India : Tension prevailed in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong for a third day on Sunday but the overall situation has improved and curfew will be lifted for seven hours today but restrictions will remain in force. Army troops rescued about 500 people, including 200 women and children, following night-long violence on Saturday during which an angry mob burnt a shop, a house, damaged five vehicles and injured a senior police officer.
The situation had become so grave that the Army had to conduct flag marches, and authorities had to suspend Internet services in the city to prevent the hate messages from spreading.
The situation escalated yesterday after sporadic incidents of stone-throwing in the city, in which a petrol bomb was also thrown by protestors but no one was injured. Protestors clashed with security personnel on Saturday night, forcing the authorities to declare a night curfew between 10 pm to 5 am in the city.
What triggered the violence in Shillong?
The clash erupted after a bus conductor was allegedly assaulted on Thursday by a group of people residing at Them Iew Mawlong, a Punjabi settlement in Shillong, according to agency reports. Besides the conductor, three others were also injured.
Trouble escalated when rumours spread on social media that the conductor had succumbed to injuries, prompting a group of bus drivers to converge at Them Iew Mawlong. The police had to fire teargas shells to disperse them, officials said.
However, according to several media reports, the larger matter is of community clashes between Khasis and Punjabis and violence broke out following a heated argument between a Khasi boy and Punjabi women in Them Iew Mawlong.
According to residents of Them Iew Mawlong locality, that has 350 homes of the Punjabi community, the Khasi society wants them to evict the area as they consider them to be illegal settlers since as long as 1980, reported The Indian Express. However the Punjabi community, who say they have resided in the area for 200 years now, have no intention of moving out.
Soon after the incident, several groups including the Khasi Students Union, the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) and the Hynniewtrep Youth Council reiterated their demand for the eviction of the “illegal settlers.
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