Shillong violence a local issue, not communal: Meghalaya CM

TIL Desk/National/Shillong/ Curfew in pockets of Shillong was relaxed for seven hours on Sunday, even as Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the violence that broke out on Thursday was a local issue and not communal in nature.

A team of Shiromani Akali Dal leaders from Delhi visited the Meghalaya capital in view of the clashes involving residents of the Punjabi Line area and employees of state-run buses belonging to the Khasi community. The Punjab government has also sent a team here. The East Khasi Hills district authorities relaxed the curfew from 8 am to 3 pm to allow churchgoers to attend Sunday services, officials said.

“The problem is very much in a particular locality, on a particular issue. It just happened that two particular communities were involved, but it’s not a communal thing,” Sangma. The clashes in parts of Shillong were given a communal colour by vested groups and a section of the media outside the state, he said.

A number of those arrested in connection with the violence were from outside East Khasi Hills district, in which Shillong falls, Sangma said. The chief minister said, “Money and liquor were given to people to indulge in violence. We have evidence of it”. The authorities were on the job to trace those funding the violence, he said.