Curfew to be relaxed in Shillong today

SHILLONG: Authorities here on Tuesday decided to briefly relax the curfew in the state capital on Wednesday while internet on mobile telephones remained restricted even as the situation was showing steady improvement.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress demanded setting up of a judicial inquiry into the issue of shifting the Sikh inhabitants from Sweepers Lane, a day after the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government decided to constitute a high level committee to ind out a permanent solution to the long-pending issue.

A delegation of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee from Amritsar also opposed the move of the Meghalaya government to re-locate the Sikhs to other parts of the city.

“We have decided not to relax the curfew on Tuesday though the situation in the area is slowly limping back to normalcy. We are keeping a close watch on the situation,” Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills district P.S. Dkhar told IANS.

However, some relaxation will be made on Wednesday, he added.

Curfew will be relaxed in 13 tension-hit areas under Lumdiengjri Police Station and Cantonment Beat House located near Iewduh, one of the busiest markets in the northeastern region, from 7 a.m. to 12 noon, and then be reimposed, said Dkhar.

Night curfew in the Shillong Agglomeration will be relaxed from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. with effect from Wednesday.

Two Army columns carried out a third lag march here on Tuesday to help the district administration to bring the situation under control.

Curfew was imposed in some areas on June 1 following violence involving members of the Punjabi and indigenous Khasi communities.

Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said the government has “failed” to sustain peace in the state and demanded setting up of a judicial inquiry into the issue of shifting the Sikh inhabitants from Sweepers Lane, known to the local people as Them Metor and located in the commercial area of Shillong near Iewduh, one of the busiest markets in the northeastern states.

For more than two decades, several indigenous Khasi civil society groups have demanded from the Meghalaya to re-locate Sikh residents, living there since British times, from Sweepers Lane as most of them are “illegal settlers”.

“It is a sad thing that not even completing three months, they (MDA) have messed up everything.”