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SUMP: Arunachal's Adi community group seeks judicial probe into police action
SUMP: Arunachal's Adi community group seeks judicial probe into police action
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Itanagar, An organisation of the Adi Community has sought an inquiry by a sitting judge into the "unprovoked police crackdown on peaceful protesters" at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh's East Siang district on October 23, warning of a democratic movement if no action is taken within 14 days.
In a letter submitted to Governor K T Parnaik, the Pasighat-based Adi Baane Kebang United also sought stringent action against the police personnel and the magistrate on duty during the incident at Raneghat Tinali, on the outskirts of Pasighat, which triggered subsequent arson and vandalism in the town.
The ABKU, formed on August 1 following a public referendum to oppose the Siang Upper Multi-purpose Project , alleged that security forces suddenly fired tear gas shells and lobbed stun grenades at a group of youths who were sitting peacefully after concluding a 24-hour sit-in at 2 pm on October 23.
"Many young boys and girls sustained injuries in the stun grenade and tear gas attacks and had to be rushed to the Bakin Pertin General Hospital in Pasighat," the letter signed by ABKU president Dijhi Tamuk, general secretary Jirbo Jamoh, and others stated.
Several organisations had called a 12-hour shutdown across East Siang, Siang, and Upper Siang districts on October 23 against the Pre-Feasibility Report of SUMP undertaken by the NHPC, and the shutdown in East Siang had been called off a day earlier.
The East Siang shutdown was withdrawn due to apprehensions of violence following the circulation of a threatening voice message on social media, warning shopkeepers against opening their establishments, while the shutdown in the other two districts concluded peacefully at 5 pm, the letter said.
According to the ABKU, the independent group of youth had no connection with other organisations demanding shutdown, and were dispersing when the security forces intervened without provocation.
The organisation asserted that such measures were unwarranted in a democratic country.
The ABKU condemned the subsequent vandalism, in which agitated youths damaged the NHPC office, a police station, and the residences of two MLAs, but said it was a direct fallout of the panic and anger caused by the police action.
"Had the security forces not resorted to this unprovoked crackdown, the Pasighat violence of October 23 would not have taken place," the representation to the governor read.
Video clippings of the incident and the threatening audio message have been submitted to the Lok Bhavan as evidence.
The proposed 11,200-MW SUMP is envisaged as a major hydropower and water-storage project on the Siang River. The Arunachal government has cited water security, flood moderation and hydropower generation among its objectives, while the project has also been viewed in the context of China's proposed large hydropower development upstream on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet.
The Arunachal Pradesh government has maintained that it wants the pre-feasibility report completed to establish the project's technical viability and determine whether and how it could be developed. It has been maintaining that the report would enable an informed decision on the proposal, rather than amounting to an immediate commitment to construction.
However, the project has faced sustained opposition from sections of the indigenous Adi community over concerns about possible displacement, submergence of ancestral villages and environmental consequences.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
