Law will take own course on arrested KSU leaders: CM
Shillong, Aug 24: The state government has officially invited the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) for talks on its five-point agenda even as it maintained that law will take its own course regarding the top KSU leaders, who were arrested following the August-19 violence in Shillong.
Informing about the government’s written invitation to KSU, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday said, “We have written officially to the KSU and asked them to come for talks. We expect we will get some response maybe by today evening or maybe by tomorrow…”
The Chief Minister also denied the KSU’s allegation that the government had not acted on the demands, saying that there has been “some communication gap” on the issue.
He said the government’s position will be clarified in the joint meeting with the KSU.
Sangma maintained that the government has been very prompt in responding to demands of KSU or any other civil society organisations.
“Wherever we can do, we have given the commitment and we move forward. There is some communication gap. We will ensure we have a meeting and we will clarify all those points,” he said.
He also expressed the hope that that the KSU will respond to the government’s invitation for talks “maybe later in the afternoon or in the evening”.
On the demand for release the arrested KSU leaders and revoke MMPO/MPDA invoked against them, the Chief Minister asserted that law will take its own course.
“Please allow the law to take its own course and I think it is not proper for us to interfere,” he said.
On the progress of the investigation into the August-19 violence, he said police have already identified five masked miscreants and that actions have been initiated to nab them.
“Further steps will be continued to ensure all the miscreants, who were involved and led to the situation, will be brought to justice,” he said.
On if the government will come up with SOPs for rallies and processions, Sangma said conditions are usually laid down while granting permission but the government would now consider imposing “stricter regulations”.
Denying intelligence failure resulting in the violence, Sangma said, “Whenever any situation happens, then the most jazzy word to use is intelligence failure. There was no intelligence failure as such.”
“All aspects were looked into but to be very frank, we also work in one sense on the basis of some trust and some kind of assurance… there was a very clear understanding that this rally will be peaceful,” he said.
He said security personnel were deployed along the routes of the protest but monitoring became complex due to the scale and geographic spread of the incidents.
“Our manpower was also spread out and if it was in one place it would be easier,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the behaviour of the miscreants was unprecedented and had surprised even the public.
“People are quite surprised and shocked at the way these miscreants have behaved, which was something, in a way, unprecedented, never seen before… We were caught by surprise in some sense by the scale and the action… the scale was something, as I said, we have not seen in the past…,” he stated.
