Daistong clash: two villagers file FIR against KSU leaders

The November 7 confrontation near the proposed Shree Cement plant site at Daistong in East Jaintia Hills is now the subject of rival police complaints, with two local men lodging an FIR against leaders of the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) a day after the union filed its own.

Villagers' complaint

Ameriki Sukhlain and Khreh Sukhlain, residents of the area under Elaka Nongkhlieh, have complained to the Superintendent of Police, East Jaintia Hills, that they were waylaid, assaulted with weapons and threatened with death at around 3.30 pm on November 7 while returning from their paddy fields, Syllad reported.

Their FIR names KSU general secretary Reuben Najiar, president Raymond Kharjana, East Jaintia circle president Streamly Suchen, general secretary Kwilnis Suchiang and executive member Shaniah Dkhar, along with other members. It alleges that Khreh Sukhlain's hand was cut with a dao and that Ameriki Sukhlain was held back and struck on the head with a stone. The complainants named two eyewitnesses and asked for police protection and action under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions covering trespass, wrongful restraint, hurt with dangerous weapons, rioting and criminal intimidation.

Speaking to Highland Post earlier, Khreh Sukhlain said he was carrying a dao only because he uses it on his farm, and that he and Ameriki are farmers and labourers, not Shree Cement employees. "I thought the KSU had come to help the Khasi-Pnar people," he said.

The allegations are yet to be tested by police.

KSU's version

The KSU, in an FIR lodged on Monday, gave a very different account. It said its delegation had visited Daistong and Shnongrim to hear residents' views on the cement project while a fact-finding committee's inquiry is still under way. When the team, accompanied by journalists, went to see the proposed plant site, it said six to ten masked men armed with daos, sticks and iron rods blocked their path and tried to attack a member.

The union said its members acted in self-defence, pointed to video of the scuffle circulating on social media, and rejected the Sukhlains' claims as a distortion of events. It also accused police at the scene of failing to detain the alleged attackers and suspected the confrontation was set up by people acting for the cement company, an allegation it has not substantiated.

The KSU has demanded an impartial investigation and repeated that people of Daistong, Shnongrim and nearby villages must have the final say on the project.

Background

The East Jaintia Hills SP had already ordered an inquiry into the incident after both sides traded accusations over the weekend. The proposed Shree Cement limestone and cement project at Daistong has divided local villages for months, and the state government earlier ordered a status quo on work at the site.