A stretch of road in Shillong's Mawblei locality turned into a scene of alarm before daybreak on Saturday, after officers were called out to a tyre set on fire in the middle of the street, with a handwritten card carrying an ominous message left right beside it.
What police found at the spot
The alert came in at around 1.30 am, when a tyre left in the middle of the road was seen burning. By the time officers reached the spot, whoever had set it there was long gone, and the street was empty. A piece of cardboard placed near the flames carried a message scrawled by hand, apparently meant as a warning to the authorities.
A warning scrawled in Khasi
The note read, "Wat kemkulmar ïoh kan pluh," a Khasi phrase that translates to "Don't arrest randomly or it will burn." Personnel from Madanriting police station who reached the scene doused the flames and secured the area. Investigators are now trying to trace who left the tyre and the note behind, and that part of the case remains open.
Why tempers are running high
The episode surfaced barely a day after the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) handed the state government a three-day ultimatum, demanding arrests of those it holds responsible for vandalising vehicles, tearing up roads and roughing up people who had turned out to oppose a public hearing on a limestone mining project planned by Shree Cement Ltd near Lum Syrman, in East Jaintia Hills.
KSU alleges one-sided policing
The union has accused the police of acting only against its own cadre, pointing out that several of its leaders and members have already been arrested and charged in cases it says rest on thin evidence, even as nobody has been detained for the violence unleashed during the public hearing itself.
Deadline set after a review meeting
The three-day ultimatum emerged from a sitting of the KSU's Central Executive Committee on Friday, called to revisit the organisation's five-point charter of demands placed before the government and to weigh how far the state had honoured the assurances given during talks held with officials on 26 August at the Secretariat.
