Parts of strife-torn Shillong has been relaxed due to Curfew for seven hours on Sunday. which helps people in 14 localities under curfew scramble for essentials and provided a window for stranded tourists to evacuate the Meghalaya capital.
“Curfew has been relaxed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in view of the improvement in law and order situation since Saturday evening. But night curfew across the city will remain until further orders,” P.S. Dkhar, Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills district, told on Sunday.
Mr. Dkhar said local taxi and private vehicles have been plying but long-distance transport services, particularly to Guwahati, remain affected. “We do not know how many tourists are stranded in Shillong, but we are trying to ensure they can return home safe,” he said. Most of the tourist hotels are in Police Bazaar area, close to the trouble-torn area.
About 500 residents of the locality, mostly women and children belonging to families of Dalit Sikhs employed as sanitation workers by the municipality, have taken shelter at Shillong’s Garrison Ground under the jurisdiction of Army’s 101 Area.
“We are not aware of people taking refuge. At least the Army did not inform us,” Mr. Dkhar said.
Fiery social media posts saying a local tribal man had been killed in Punjabi Lane had triggered the violence on Thursday evening, though the police had earlier in the day contained a minor clash between the driver and conductor of a State transport bus and women of the locality who had thrown stones at the bus for blocking their way to a water source.
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The authorities in East Khasi Hills and adjoining Ri-Bhoi districts have restricted the sale of petrol, giving it to the bottles or such sort of things, after miscreants lobbed Molotov cocktails damaging a house and a two-wheeler showroom.
Police said nine motorbikes were destroyed around 10:30 p.m. when miscreants attacked a showroom in Mawblei area with petrol bombs. A shop in Punjabi Lane was also damaged.
A report from Nongpoh, a town halfway between Guwahati and Shillong, said a truck with Punjab registration was in the fire at Umran nearby on Saturday. The truck, carrying CGI sheets from Nepal, was Tripura-bound.
Violence in Shillong has revived the call to shift the residents of Harijan Colony, one of 12 localities in the city administration identified as slums.
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