Vehicles, school burnt, five arrested

SHILLONG, SEPT 10: Five arson cases were reported and five persons were arrested on Tuesday, the first day of the second round of the night road blockade called by the ngos to pressurize the state government for implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.

Police source said a truck that was parked on the roadside in Laitkor was set ablaze by miscreants at around 10.30 pm. The vehicle was completely charred and the driver was not there. Nobody has been arrested in this connection.

Of the five boys that were arrested on Tuesday night during the night road blockade hours, three are from Motinagar and the other two are from Nongmynsong.  The three from Motinagar were arrested for roaming around with catapult  while the two others were detained by the Nongmynsong police for carrying petrol in a bottle and investigation is on to find out the purpose of the moving around with a petrol bottle.

East Khasi SP (city) Vivek Syiem also informed that some miscreants tried to burn down two vehicles at Dong Kadiang under Nongmynsong police outpost on Tuesday. The first vehicle that the miscreants attempted to set on fire was a Maruti car ML 05 0655. However only one of the wheels caps of the car was burnt. He said the owner of the vehicle could not be located.

In the second incident miscreants attempted to set on fire a Swift ML 05 G 0375 that belonged to Munni Kharkongor  of Dong Kadiang. Two wheel caps and two tyres were slightly burnt and both vehicles were parked adjacent to each other at Dong Kadiang.

Syiem informed that police recovered one petrol container. He said a driver of the vehicle was also picked up by police after he was found carrying petrol in a bottle.  He said, “We have just picked him up for interrogation to verify on the matter.”

The second round of the night road blockade from 7 pm to 5 am called by the ngos began on Tuesday. Preceding the night road blockade,  a police requisition mini bus was set on fire and was partially damaged and the Anath Asharam LP School located at Mawprem was also targeted when miscreant tried to burnt down the school but only the window panes were damaged hours before the night road blockade started.

It was around 10 am that the miscreants attempted to set on fire the Anath Ashram LP School and at around 3 pm an attempt was made to set ablaze the mini bus ML 05 B 8518 that was requisitioned by the police at Nongmynsong.

However some people saw the miscreants pouring petrol on the vehicle and managed to put off the fire resulting in partial damage of the bus.

Nongmynsong police told this website that nobody has so far been arrested in connection with the attempt to burn down the mini bus but investigation into the incident has been initiated. – By Our Reporter