Around 150 people of a village in West Khasi Hills district bordering Assam have fled after five persons of the village were arrested by the Assam Police violating protocols, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said.
The arrests were made on the charge of manhandling an engineer of the Assam government during his team's inspection in the area two weeks ago, Sangma said in the assembly.
The inspection was carried out by the team claiming that the area falls under Assam, he said.
Meghalaya shares nearly 900 km long interstate border with Assam on its north and the two states have decades-old border dispute.
"One hundred and fifty people of Malangkona village have fled their homes and village to evade arrest by the Boko police (of Assam)," Sangma said while replying to a zero hour notice tabled by United Democratic Party's MLA S K Sunn.
Sunn quoted local newspaper reports that said over 500 people have fled from Malangkona village fearing arrests by Assam police.
Also Read
The chief minister informed the house that a special police team was sent to the area to instill confidence among the local people, and the district administration has also re-inforced its manpower and are camping in the area.
The superintendent of police of West Khasi Hills had also written to his counterpart in Kamrup (Rural) district of Assam on September 24 seeking his intervention in the matter and help bringing back normalcy in the area, he said.
The chief minister said Assam police did not follow protocols while arresting the villagers of Meghalaya.
When contacted, ADGP (Special branch) of Assam Police, Pallab Bhattacharjee, said the incident happened when a team of Assam public health engineering went there for some official work and those five people manhandled the team members on Assam land.
The PHE team lodged a complaint with the Boko police station following which they were arrested, Bhattacharjee said adding that the Boko police was asked to handle the matter carefully as it is a sensitive issue.
Chief ministers of the two states had a telephonic talk on this matter, he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content