Activists demanding implementation of Inner Liner Permit in Meghalaya today shrugged off any responsibility for attacks on people and properties and blamed the government for failure to protect them.
"We will not take responsibility for the attacks on people and properties as there is no such instruction from our side. We have only sponsored office picketing and road blockades," Joe Marwein, president of Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP), said at a press conference.
The FKJGP is one among the 13 pressure groups demanding implementation of ILP to curb influx of outsiders into Meghalaya and have been on the streets agitating for over seven weeks now.
Two persons have died - one due to suffocation and the other of burn injuries - in the past one month and properties worth over Rs 40 crore were damaged in the attack by suspected pro-ILP activists.
"These incidents took place because of the failure of the law enforcement machineries of the government," said Sadon B Blah, general secretary of the Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF), also part of the pro-ILP movements.
The ILP is issued under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, by the state governments and is in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
