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Meghalaya : Non-cooperation movement by Garo Students’ union |
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The first day of the dawn-to-dusk “non-cooperation movement” on Sept. 12 by the Garo Students Union (GSU) in the East Garo Hills and along the highway passed without any untoward incident being reported. The agitation was in protest against the state government’s refusal to remove Justice (retd) D.N. Baruah as the head of the inquiry commission probing the September 30 police firing on students in Williamnagar. Student activists blocked National Highway 62 for several hours.
The GSU has been demanding Baruah’s ouster on grounds of bias against witnesses speaking against the police. The inquiry commission was constituted by the government last year. Five persons died and several were injured in the firing on students who were protesting against the government’s strategy for restructuring the Board of School Education, headquartered in the Garo hills.
The Garo community believed that the government, then headed by D.D. Lapang, was trying to bifurcate the board and make Shillong the hub of all its activities. The Khasi Students Union’s demand for an overhaul of the board under any circumstance gave the issue an ethnic colour.
On the demand to replace Baruah as the head of the inquiry, sources said the government had already pleaded its inability to “denotify” the Baruah commission but said that it would ensure a fair probe into the police firing.
Meghalaya Chief Minister J. D Rymbai recently assured the GSU and several NGOs from the Garo hills that he would find a solution to the problem.
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