SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Friday reacting to queries about why section 144 was not implemented in Tura to control the crowd said, “The administration did not feel it was necessary because when we entered, on my personal assessment there were about 500-700 people, however, the crowd grew after that.”
Sangma also mentioned that they had gone with positive intentions and to find an amicable way forward, expecting some sort of aggression, but nothing that could not be worked out with dialogue.
Sangma thereby also clarified that the people sitting on the hunger strike were hardly 10-15 people, and they did not anticipate the crowd to grow like this.
He condemned the attack on armed forces who were there solely to perform their duty and applauded the efforts of the police and the armed forces who were able to manage the crowd in a span of 2 hours.
“I was very particular that we should control the crowd without using any excessive force. I was strictly against the use of weapons. And the police with that limited scope indeed did a great job,” he said.