Couple stages six-hour hunger strike to protest against atrocities on non tribal in Meghalaya 

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 23, 2022

SK Choudhury along with his wife Kalpana on Sunday staged a six-hour hunger strike as a mark of protest against the alleged violent attack on non-tribal.

This also came in the wake of the recent assualt incident at Lumdiengjri area which left three persons injured. 

“Stop pitting one community against the other”, “bring criminals to justice”, “enough is enough, stop communal violence”, read some of the placards at the protest venue at Khyndailad.

Speaking to reporters, Choudhury alleged that for the last 50 years, many crimes are taking place against the innocent minorities in the state. 

“Meghalaya has completed 50 years on January 21. The incident just the previous day should I term it as a celebration in which people are brutally (beaten up) and sent to hospital,” he said. 

“And any time wherever an innocent person is going, he/she is beaten up brutally but no one object..nobody talks why he was killed, why his shop broken/looted, why are we not human beings,” Choudhury asked. 

He said his wife, a kidney transplant patient, has also decided to support him. 

“We have actually applied for fast till death but the government has not given us the permission but has given permission for fasting from 10 am to 4 pm (for demanding justice from the government),” he said.

Choudhury said he had told the deputy commissioner that he would continue fasting but he realized that it was not good to defy the government order or do anything illegal. 

“Again in the future, if any incident takes place, then and there will ask for permission and sit for protest,” he maintained. 

When asked, Choudhury alleged that many people were killed during 1979 and such attrocities is continuing till today while referring to the Lumdiengjri incident. 

“I want this big gap between tribal and non-tribal should be bridged. Why you treat me as an enemy? You are also human being, your blood is red my blood is red…I am born here, studied here and have my own house, then why this feelling should be there. So (through this protest) I want to change that,” he said.

Earlier, Choudhury also alleged that his business license was also not renewed for last four years. 

“I have applied but it is not renewed why, I am a bonafide citizen of Meghalaya why this discrepancy is there,” he said.