After 4 years of surviving the attack of coal miners Meghalaya activists threaten again
Agnes Kharshing and Amita Sangma campaign against illegal extraction and transportation of coal
Four years after surviving a deadly attack by those involved in illegal coal mining, two Meghalaya workers have been threatened again.
Agnis Kharsingh and Amita Sangma lodged an FIR with a police station in Shillong on October 1 after receiving a threatening call from a person. Both have been under police protection since an attack on them near an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills district in 2018. .
The caller, who identified himself as Nick Nongkhlao, threatened to report the case to the two when the two were seen leaving a truck loaded with illegal coal.
According to the FIR, Nankhalao also called both Mrs. Kharsingh and Mrs. Sangma and threatened Sangma to leave the truck.
“He said he was my son’s friend. By naming my son, he was basically threatening and insulting me,” said Mrs Sangma, a 46-year-old widow and mother of seven.
He said the man asked him to help unload two coal trucks, claiming that their owner was his friend.
“I am afraid my kids may be targeted because they are not as safe as me. If anything happens to my children, the National People’s Party-led government in Meghalaya will be fully responsible, ”he said.
‘Young ready’
Mrs Kharsingh, head of the NGO Civil Society Women’s Organization, said she had shared the caller’s phone number with police. “If they want, they can easily catch him,” he said, adding that the “coal mafia” has involved and prepared young people.
The Green1-year-old activist commented that it was “disappointing” that the government had turned a blind eye to the rat-hole coal mine since April 201, despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal.
“All the coal extracted before the NGT ban is gone, but there are about 50 coke plants in the East Jaintia hill district. Apparently they are being fed newly mined coal, ”he said.
There have been several mining accidents in coal-rich Meghalaya. At least 17 workers, mostly from Assam, died in a submerged coal mine in December 2018. At least five miners were killed in the latest such incident in May.
After 4 years of surviving the attack of coal miners Meghalaya activists threaten again
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News East India staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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