The movement against a multipurpose dam project in Upper Siang, in the eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is growing more heated. The state’s BJP government has deployed police and paramilitary forces in Upper Siang, which borders China.
On Friday there were several rounds of clashes between the joint forces and local people. Protesters say at least six women were seriously injured in the clashes over the Upper Siang project. Officials said the forces were compelled to fire tear gas shells.
Groups leading the movement in the Siang region had called a 12-hour shutdown on 23 October. The strike had a marked effect across large parts of Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts. Witnesses said police tear gas canisters struck many protesters directly, and several people began having trouble breathing.
The strike was called by several indigenous organisations in the area, among them Adi Bane Kebang, the youth wing of the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum and other joint bodies.
They have four main demands: the immediate release of 10 arrested activists, the reinstatement of dismissed gaon buras (village headmen) and a halt to all pre-feasibility survey work for the dam. They also want all central force personnel withdrawn from the area. The situation remained tense on Saturday.
The police gave a different account. Kamdam Sikom, superintendent of police in Siang, said 150 to 200 protesters had gathered in the Dite-Dime area in the morning. Legal steps were taken to remove them in the presence of an executive magistrate, and police were compelled to use tear gas to maintain law and order, he said.
Similar clashes were reported in Pasighat, also in Arunachal Pradesh, where police fired tear gas to disperse young anti-dam protesters. Several police vehicles were damaged in the unrest. A video circulating on social media shows tear gas being fired at protesters while a speech was under way.
The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee strongly condemned the action and demanded an impartial inquiry into what it called excessive use of force by police.
Congress said the way the state government was suppressing public anger over the mega dam was alarming. Its leaders recalled that assurances had been given earlier on releasing the arrested young people and stopping the survey work, and said anger was growing because those promises had not been kept.
Congress said the chief minister must answer for the government’s actions, and that consent can never be won by force. The government must sit down at once with indigenous organisations, affected families and elders, and the injured must be given prompt treatment, the party said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report