Shillong, July 28: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has said the Mahadevkhola incident is not connected to religious or communal angle.
“It was a standalone incident and not at all religiously or communally motivated but it just so happened that the two groups are from two different communities and hence, it is not right to connect those dots and then try to give it a communal or religious colour,” Conrad told reporters on Friday.
Police arrested three persons and two juveniles for their alleged involvement in attacking and robbing a shopkeeper at Mahadevkhola on July 24.
Conrad informed that police have also studied the background of the individuals arrested and found that they are not related to any particular organisation. “It was a standalone incident that happened between two groups and as per law whatever action needs to be taken will be taken,” he said.
Conrad appealed to all not to give such incidents a communal colour. “This is not correct as it leads to unnecessary tension”, he said.
When asked whether the government will take action against misreporting by a national media on the incident, Conrad said, “We have not gone into that level but I mean we do expect the news agency to be responsible to not give it a communal colour but if it goes beyond a certain point then we will take actions against agencies that do unnecessarily create this kind of a picture. As I said the agencies should do their homework first, find out the facts and only then come out with these kinds of things but I will reiterate there is no communal or religious angle to this incident”, he said.
The chief minister said the Mahadevkhola incident has nothing to do with the situation in Manipur. “We should avoid connecting what is happening in Manipur with this incident. It is absolutely not connected at all.”
He said the Manipur situation is very complex “It is easy to bring religious colour to it but you need to understand that this is a situation where two communities are involved and of course in the process we have seen many people are affected but we should all try our best to find a way to find peace in Manipur I think that is important”, Conrad said.
