By Matters India Reporter

Shillong: The Meghalaya police on February 27 urged the public to maintain peace and harmony after some unidentified miscreants attacked a group of construction workers from Assam in a Jesuit college campus.

One person was killed and seven others were wounded in the February 24 attack inside the campus of St. Xavier’s College at Shait-Shait Umoid village, 15 km from Mawkyrwat in South West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. The village is some 65 km southwest of Shillong, the capital of the eastern Indian state.

The police have detained three people in connection with the incident. The Jesuits have closed their college indefinitely.

A police statement says their investigation of the case is in progress to establish the identities of those involved in the crime.

The “Meghalaya police appeals to the general public to kindly refrain from taking the law into their own hands or breach communal peace and harmony in the state, as stringent action under relevant provisions of law will be taken against them,” adds the statement signed by G K Iangrai, (MPS) Assistant Inspector General of Police (A) Meghalaya.

According to reports in the local press, a group of about 15-20 masked men armed with knives and tools attacked the laborers while they were sleeping inside the St. Xavier’s College campus.

All the laborers were wounded and they were immediately taken to the Mawkyrwat Community Health Centre. Two of the eight laborers, who had sustained serious injuries, were referred to Shillong Civil Hospital for further treatment. One of them, Raju Mondal, succumbed to his injuries.

All the laborers came from Ujanghagrar Char in Assam’s South Salmara-Mankachar district.

Earlier, parish Priest of Mawkyrwat Father Friding Kharsyiemiong termed the incident as well planned. “The intention of the miscreants was to attack and harm our laborers,” the priest told media persons.

According to him, the armed attackers had their faces covered with masks and that the college people could not get the registration number of the miscreants’ car.

What surprised Father Kharsyiemiong the most was that the attackers “knew precisely in which classroom they were staying although we had constructed a separate place for them to stay. This shows someone must have fed them the information.”

College vice principal Father L David Nukhu said they had brought the laborers from Assam on February 19 for constructing the college administrative block and the girls’ hostel building. The licensing officer of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council’s Labour Department had given permission to bring them, he explained.

According to him, the village headman and secretary had come at 8 am February 22 and informed the college authorities that the laborers could not stay and work in the college until further arrangement.

“Consequently, we had to keep them at Nativity Higher Secondary School, Mawkyrwat for their safety,” Father Nukhu said.

Mext day, the college authorities wrote to the village authorities and they had “a cordial meeting” that granted permission for the laborers to stay and work at the college.

“Therefore, we shifted the laborers to the St Xavier’s College construction site in Umoid at 7:30 am on February 24,” the vice principal narrated.

In a statement on February 25, a day after the attack, the college authorities explained that they had sought the approval of the state chief minister, home minister and law minister besides top officials before the laborers’ arrival. They had also met the leaders of some NGOs, including the Khasi Students’ Union and the Hynniewtrep Youth Council to explain the need for the workers.

The college authorities further said the authorities had assured them of the workers’ safety. All the laborers possessed work licenses mandated by the Meghalaya state, the college explained.

“St. Xavier’s is committed to the advancement of the local communities and to advancing the educational aspirations and employment opportunities of the youth. On occasions when the school authorities, despite their sincerest efforts, have inadvertently overlooked any requirement, they have readily apologized and tried to resolve the problem. However, violence is not an acceptable solution to any problem, no matter what it is. A threat to the life or wellbeing of an innocent worker is not a price that the authorities are willing to accept,” the college statement said.

The seven injured are Aminul Islam (35), Abul Mondal (29), Bahadur Sheikh (32), Abdul Bari (42), Shahinoor Alom (21), Yeasin Mondal (45) and Amir Hussain (24).

Meanwhile several local NGOs have condemned the incident and requested the police to find the culprits and book them according to the law of the land.

Aiborlang Nongsiej, an educator and a writer from the region of South West Khasi Hills District, also condemned what he said was the barbaric act. “The inhuman act of the miscreants has shocked the entire district and the incident has become the headlines of most of the local newspapers and news channels,” he wrote in the Shillong Times.

He also empathized with the Jesuits, particularly those working in northeastern India. “Let us not forget that the western part of Khasi Hills is usually against the non-locals. In fact, there are several incidents in the past where non-locals were being attacked in this part of the region of Khasi Hills. Nevertheless, the people of my district have not learned till date the consequences of what they had done in the past,” Nongsiej said.