SHILLONG: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) has condemned the action of Assam Police at Umwali, West Khasi Hills, which resulted in injury to 28 women of the area, on February 14, even as Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong faced a black-flag protest in Nongstoin on Saturday over the festering inter-state border dispute.
NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa on Saturday said that it was unimaginable to think that armed policemen would attack women and this can only be termed as an “extreme inhumane act”.
NESO demanded strong action be taken against the policemen and also others involved in the act.
“Solving the inter-state boundary problem has been a long-standing demand of the NESO and in this regard, we once again demand that the governments of Meghalaya and Assam should solve this issue at the earliest so that people living in the inter-state borders do not live in constant fear but can have a peaceful existence,” NESO said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) too has condemned the incident. AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath said that the border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya should be resolved through discussions at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Tynsong faced a black-flag protest from pressure groups over the long-drawn border dispute in Nongstoin while he was campaigning for the party candidate, Apsharailang Syiem, for the upcoming KHADC polls.
Pictures of pressure groups holding up black flags and banners were also circulated in the social media.
Sources said what irked the pressure groups and the residents is the lukewarm response of the NPP-led MDA government to solving the border dispute.
Earlier on Friday, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was non-committal in initiating border talks at his level.
After the MDA assumed office a year ago, not a single chief ministerial or chief secretary level meeting has been to discuss the pending issue.
