India: Call for probe into killing of eight coal miners in Meghalaya’s Garo hills

The Telegraph, 7 July 2013

Call to probe miner deaths
NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, July 6: The voices of discontent of Assam-based minority groups about last month’s killing of eight coal miners in Meghalaya’s Garo hills have reached the national capital along with a call for a high-level judicial probe.

The eight miners were allegedly shot dead by armed attackers while looting three Garo hills mines on the night of June 23. Though Meghalaya police have been maintaining the robbery angle, Assam police are not totally convinced.

A minority community group, Asom Sangkhyalaghu Sangram Parishad, has approached the home ministry and minority affairs ministry, voicing its protest against killing of the labourers hailing from Dhubri and Goalpara districts of Assam.

The parishad’s president, Nozir Uddin Ahmed, told minority affairs minister K. Rahman Khan today that at least 18 labourers had been killed in coalmines of West Garo Hills and South Garo Hills districts.

The parishad members will call on home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Wednesday to ask for immediate steps to ensure security for Assam labourers working in Meghalaya coalmines. It has also demanded a high-level judicial probe into the killings to ensure exemplary action against the perpetrators.

Coalmines in Meghalaya’s districts bordering Assam employ labourers mostly from Goalpara and Dhubri districts, where a sizeable chunk of the population belongs to the minority community. This symbiotic relationship has been continuing for no less than two decades.

“We are worried why is it happening now; we smell a conspiracy,” Ahmed told The Telegraph, while claiming that the bodies of 18 labourers had been found. The police claim only eight labourers had been killed on June 23, while the others might have been killed in unrelated incidents.

Assam police sources said trouble began after a 27-year-old mentally challenged woman was allegedly molested in Tura in West Garo Hills, following which some people from Assam were killed. “One thing led to another and the incident assumed a communal colour but we hope this will end soon as both states are coordinating,” an Assam police officer said.

“Jo ho gaya soh ho gaya (let bygones be bygones), but we want security for these poor people,” said Ahmed.

The parishad has also demanded an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh and jobs for the next of kin of the dead.