Shillong, Apr 29: The Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association (MeTTA) has slammed the state government over deployment of armed police in the campus of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU).
Terming the deployment of forces as “unprecedented and unwarranted”, the MeTTA president Prof Desmond L Kharmawphlang said, “The matter assumes a profoundly more serious significance when it came to light that the incursion into the precincts of the university was made without the law enforcement personnel consulting the university authority or even making an attempt to obtain permission for the entry.”
Countless students made frantic and frightened calls to the teachers after being “intimidated by khaki and combat fatigue”, the MeTTA president said.
The police gave an “impression that they were in for the long haul, their trucks and vehicles being loaded with provisions and bivouac materials”, he said.
“The presence of such a huge police presence in response to an alleged assault case is unprecedented and uncalled for…,” Prof Kharmawphlang said.
He also alleged that academic atmosphere of the campus was disturbed to such an extent that multiple academic and administrative work was shelved and abandoned due to the presence of police forces.
