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| A man lights a candle in memory of the victims at Tura on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture |
Shillong, Oct. 1: Four years after the infamous police firing in Tura and Williamnagar, the residents are still crying out for justice.
The incidents, which left nine persons, including students, dead, justice has not been meted out to the family members of the victims.
Nine persons were killed in simultaneous police firing at Tura in West Garo Hills and Williamnagar in East Garo Hills on September 30, 2005.
The firing took place during an agitation supported by several Garo hills-based NGOs against the state government’s move to shift the headquarters of the Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education from Tura to Shillong.
Under pressure from several quarters, the Lapang-led Congress government had then ordered two separate judicial inquiries for Tura and Williamnagar. The report of the Tura inquiry commission fixed the responsibility on a few state government officials, including the police, while the other report held NGOs in Garo Hills responsible for the Williamnagar firing by instigating the public.
No action was taken against those indicted by the inquiry commissions. Moreover, the NGOs rejected the inquiry report into the Williamnagar firing.
Dissatisfied with the findings of the judicial inquiry commissions, the NCP-UDP led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance government handed over the case to the CBI last September. In December, the CBI wrote to the state government, expressing its inability to take up the case.
The principal secretary (home), Barkose Warjri, told The Telegraph today that departmental proceedings were on against both the civil and police officials who were involved in the firing incidents.
“After the government received the reports of the judicial inquiry commissions, the departmental inquiry is still on against those involved in the Garo hills firing, which claimed many lives,” he said.
Lapang had tabled the reports of the two judicial probe panels in the state Assembly on April 19, 2007.
However, the September 30 Victims Solidarity Forum commented on the undue delay in taking action against the officials found guilty even after the submission of the inquiry reports two years ago.
The two judicial inquiries into the September 30 firing incidents cost the state nearly Rs 2 crore (Rs 1,72,88,944).
The forum organised a memorial service at Tura and Williamnagar last evening.
Thousand of people took part in the memorial service, which was held at Chandmari field in Tura and Rongrengiri playground in Williamnagar.
The people who participated in the memorial service also observed a two-minute silence in memory of the victims who died four years ago.
Earlier in the day, shops and other business establishments in Tura and Williamnagar downed shutters for an hour as a mark of respect for the departed souls.