Shutdown in Meghalaya against injustice to Delhi Christians

IANS & STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, February 16: Normal life came to a standstill in Meghalaya on Monday following a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by an outlawed insurgent outfit against alleged “injustice” meted to the Christians in New Delhi.

There have been six incidents of ransacking or vandalism at Christian institutions in Delhi.

The shutdown call was also given by Hynniewtrep tiol Liberation Council (HNLC), an insurgent outfit, also to protest alleged harassment of truckers on the tiol Highways of the state and delay in submitting the Mookhep firing incident report.

The HNLC, which organises hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi state.

The Khasi-Jaintia domited areas were paralysed during the shutdown.

Shops, businesses and educatiol institutions remained shut while there was little movement of public and private transport. Two tiol highways - 40 and 44 - considered the lifelines for Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Manipur and southern Assam, were also affected by the shutdown.

The bandh called by the proscribed Hyniewtrep tiol Liberation Council turned up to be a damp squib in terms of the attendance register of government employees in Khasi-Jaintia Hills.

Except the apprehensive business community that has gone for a shutdown of their daily activities, Shillong city and the rest of the five districts in Khasi Jaintia Hills function normally.

Government employees who voluntarily preferred to go for a paid holiday never attended office, as evident from the attendance register. The attendance of government employee offices stands at 72%. In the State Secretariat, the attendance stood at 86%, a reason that the top shots in the State establishment believe that they are complying with the government orders and defying the outfit’s shut down notice.

Meghalaya Chief Secretary (CS) PBO Warjri said that the defiance trend is unsatisfactory, even as he underscored on the attendance of the government employees throughout the state.

There was no untoward incident reported in the areas where the bandh was enforced by the HNLC. The Superintendent of Police, East Khasi Hills, M Kharkrang said, “There were some reported cases,” even as he said that there has been the HNLC bids through the social network to make its presence felt.