Petrol bomb hurled at Meghalaya CM’s residence

Masked miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s private residence in Shillong late on August 15 night as the law-and-order situation continued to remain tense.

Officials said the Molotov cocktail was hurled from a distance and landed inside the compound of the Chief Minister’s residence in the Laimer area of the State capital. It did not do any damage, they said.

Shillong spiralled into unrest during Independence Day on August 15, two days after the police gunned down Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, a former extremist leader, at his residence early on August 13 morning.

The East Khasi Hills district administration imposed an indefinite curfew from 8 p.m. on August 15 after the police lost control of the situation. The State’s Home Department also suspended internet and mobile data services for 48 hours in four districts, including East Khasi Hills, of which Shillong is the district headquarters.

State’s Director-General of Police R. Chandranathan said the police fired at Thangkhiew in “self-defence after he pulled out a knife and attacked them”.

The police had gone to Thangkhiew’s residence in the Mawlai area of the city to arrest him in connection with a recent improvised explosive device blast in Shillong.

Meghalaya’s former Health Minister and senior BJP leader Alexander Laloo Hek asked the DGP to resign to pave the way for a judicial inquiry into Thangkhiew’s “encounter death”. He said the police chief should resign on moral ground and for a fair probe into the incident, especially after Lakhmen Rymbui quit as the Home Minister.

“The police overreacted and behaved like the Taliban as Thangkhiew was no longer a militant,” Mr. Hek said.

Thangkhiew was a founder-member of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council.

Meanwhile, Assam’s Special Director General of Police G.P. Singh advised people not to travel to Shillong in view of the curfew.