Mookhep firing: Pressure groups threaten agitation

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, Dec 28: Two pressure groups in Jaintia Hills region has threatened to agitate to put pressure on the government to make the Mookhep firing probe public.

The Jaintia tiol Council (JNC) and Hynniewtrep Achik tiol Movement (HANM) have set a January 2016 deadline to make the Mookhep inquiry public failing which they have threatened agitation. “We cannot any longer see the people of the region in darkness especially family members of the two who lost their lives” Sambormi Lyngdoh, Chairman JNC, said in a statement here today. “It is very shocking to see that the state government is taking more than a year to examine the case and has still not been able to detain the culprit,” Lyngdoh added.

Questioning the state government that how much more time will it take to make public the report. Both the JNC and HANM said that they will be forced to resort to strong agitation to bring about justice to the two people who lost their lives in the firing. Earlier, the JNC and HANM had staged a protest march in Shillong on November 30. They had set a ten-day deadline for the government to make the report public which has already expired.

Two villagers were killed and several others injured on September 2014 at Mookhep in East Jaintia Hills in police firing on a crowd protesting against the apathy of the government to address the concerns of the people following the NGT ban on coal mining.