Amid escalating tension in Lapangap village along the disputed Assam-Meghalaya border and growing outrage among villagers over alleged destruction of crops, Meghalaya Director General of Police Idashisha Nongrang on Thursday announced the deployment of a platoon of SF10 commandos to the West Jaintia Hills village to reinforce security and prevent any further deterioration of the situation. The move came a day after hundreds of residents from the border village marched to the Meghalaya Secretariat in Shillong alleging harassment by people from Assam’s Karbi Anglong region and demanding immediate protection for farmers cultivating land in the disputed area. Accompanied by members of the Khasi Students’ Union from West Jaintia Hills and the Jaintia National Council (JNC), the demonstrators breached police barricades outside the Secretariat while pressing for full-scale security deployment in the region. The Meghalaya Police also indicated that it may consider setting up a camp closer to the inter-State border, similar to the presence maintained by Assam, depending on how the situation unfolds.
Addressing media persons in Shillong, Nongrang said, “So yesterday, after the meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister, which was seconded by us that you would send additional forces and because of the villages of Lapangap in the initial period when the problem first flared up we had send the SF squard which we call the SF10, so they wanted another presence of SF10 there. Now SF10 have gone today. And they will be should be reaching there by now, because they had left early this morning. We have send a platoon at the moment and depending on the situation, we will see wheather we need to put more people or not.”
She said Meghalaya Police had already dispatched two platoons of Meghalaya Police Battalion personnel to the area earlier this week and that deployment would continue to be reviewed based on ground assessment. “Because additionally, day before yesterday, we had already sent two platoons of Meghalaya Police Battalion people to Lapangap. Now it depends on the situation when we are deploying forces for Law and order it all depends on what happens, it’s a developing situation. We will take an assessment every now and then.”
Although Meghalaya Police recently inaugurated a police outpost at Barato, the facility is located nearly 19 km from the disputed border zone. Referring to Assam’s existing presence near the area, the DGP suggested that Meghalaya could also establish a similar camp if required. “Assam insists we maintain status-quo while they have put up which is more or less a camp, depending on the situation we will see if from our side we also put up a camp,” she said.
Nongrang also acknowledged the concerns raised by villagers regarding alleged destruction of crops during the night. “The people of Lapangap had come yesterday, there was a significant turnout and what my officers on the ground was saying the majority of Lapangap village, turn out en-mass yesterday so it is a very genuine problem for them, they have been saying that while the Assam side, it’s not stopping the cultivation but what happening is that the villagers of Lapangap they go for the cultivation and in the evenings whatever they planted is uprooted during the night.”
“So that was a problem which they really facing and then they are saying that they haven’t had much of support from us. We’ve been trying our best,” she added.
Meghalaya Deploys SF10 Commandos to Lapangap as Tension Escalates
