Two BJP women’s wing members among 18 arrested for attacking Meghalaya CM’s office

Two Bharatiya Janata Party Mahila Morcha (women’s wing) members were among 18 persons arrested by the West Garo Hills district police for attacking the Meghalaya Chief Minister’s secretariat in Tura, which local organisations want to be declared as the State’s winter capital.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party Mahila Morcha (women’s wing) members were among 18 persons arrested by the West Garo Hills district police for attacking the Meghalaya Chief Minister’s secretariat in Tura, which local organisations want to be declared as the State’s winter capital.

A mob laid siege to the CM’s secretariat and pelted stones late Monday evening when Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma was three hours into a meeting with leaders of the organisations to discuss the issues of the winter capital and the proper implementation of a 51-year-old job reservation roster system with retrospective effect. 

The attack left 10 Meghalaya police personnel, seven Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a woman Home Guard volunteer injured.

According to a list provided by the district authorities, two of the arrested women — Dilche Ch. Marak and Belinda M. Marak — are BJP Mahila Morcha workers.

State BJP leaders did not react to the development. 

A section of people in the Garo Hills, roughly comprising the western half of Meghalaya, has been demanding winter capital status for Tura, the State’s second-largest urban centre. The demand has stemmed from the perception that the eastern half of Meghalaya was more developed because of Shillong being the State’s capital.

Shillong is almost at the centre of the hills inhabited by the Khasis, one of three matrilineal communities of the State. The other two are Garos concentrated in the Garo Hills and the Jaintias dominating the Jaintia Hills.