Shillong remains on edge over border killings

GUWAHATI: Meghalaya's capital city of Shillong remained on the edge Saturday with protests by different groups against the NDA government in the poll-bound state, five days after Assam police shot dead five people at Mukroh village in an inter-state border clash.
The protesters blamed the state government and the Centre's lackadaisical attitude in resolving the decades-long border dispute between the two states, which analysts said is at the root of Tuesday's bloodshed. The government extended suspension of internet services in seven affected districts for another 48 hours from 10.30 am on Saturday.
Several pressure groups formed under the "Save Hynniewtrep Mission" burnt effigies of Union home minister Amit Shah, CM Conrad K Sangma and state home minister Lahkmen Rymbui near the CM's official residence. Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) general secretary Roy Kupar Synrem said: "In order to show the inefficiency of the state government and the Centre to resolve the boundary disputes we have burned these effigies."
He said the Union home minister had said at the NEC plenary session in the state in January last year that the state governments and the Centre would make an effort to resolve all boundary disputes in the Northeast. "All these are mere statements and no actions have been taken. We squarely put the blame on the Centre and the two state governments for taking the border dispute very lightly," Synrem said. He demanded "the accused in the firing be tried in Meghalaya and not in Assam", even if CBI probes the killings.