KHNAM urges Meghalaya govt to release jailed KSU members

Shillong, Jun 22 (UNI) The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM), ruling partner of the Congress-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, has demanded the immediate release of all the arrested Khasi Student's Union activists.

''The Meghalaya government can diffuse the situation by immediately releasing all KSU members so far arrested, '' KHNAM General Secretary Erwin Syiem Sutnga said today.

The KHNAM, having two-members in the 60-member Assembly, was the political wing of the KSU and opposed to Uranium mining in the state.

Mr Sutnga said the detention under Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act (MPDA) was also unwarranted and set a precedent unhealthy for the democracy and undermined the Constitution of India.

The KHNAM also viewed the continuing drive by the state police to arrest the KSU members as stifling of the right to democratic protest.

Urging the people to bear with the situation but also to be ready to stand for the cause of democracy, Mr Sutnga said his party was actively pursuing the matter of resolving the present impasse so that the people were not inconvenienced.

Altogether 16 KSU activists have been arrested so far from different parts of East and West Khasi Hills district for disrupting public peace, by holding road blockades, strikes and office picketing.

Of the 16 KSU members, seven of them had been booked under MPDA and shifted to Tura and Williamnagar District Jails.

Earlier, former Lok Sabha Speaker and NCP leader Purno A Sangma had criticised the Congress-led Meghalaya government for booking the arrested KSU activists under the MPDA.

He said the MPDA should be the last resort for the government as there were other laws, including IPC and Cr PC, to deal with the arrested KSU leaders.

UNI