In the wake of the protest against the BJP government’s bid to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in the Parliament, the BJP office here was hurled with petrol bomb on Sunday night.
“We were informed that the incident occurred at around 11.20 p.m on Sunday and a fire engine rushed and doused the flames,” Superintendent of Police (Shillong City), Stephan Rynjah said on Monday.
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The petrol bomb was hurled at the outer part of the building and no one was injured.
A team of forensic experts visited the BJP headquarters to collect samples and took possession of the CCTV footage capturing the incident.
“Instigations are on to find out the attackers and no one has been arrested do far. We cannot say the reason behind the petrol bomb attack,” Rynjah said.
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The BJP Meghalaya unit has condemned the attack.
BJP legislator and Health Minister, AL Hek visited the party office and an FIR was lodged with police on Monday.
“We don’t know the reason behind this cowardly attack which is totally unacceptable. We are going to lodge a complaint with the Home Minister James Sangma demanding the immediate arrest of the attackers,” Hek said.
Meanwhile, a group of activists under the banner of Confederation of Hynñiewtrep Social Organisation staged a protest in front of the BJP’s office demanding scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which aimed at amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants who belong to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Infian citizenship.
The activists the shouted slogans against the NDA government like “Modi government down down” and asked Bangladeshis to go back to their country.
CoHSO Chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin said the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 is a threat not only to the indigenous tribals in the North East, but a national security threat as well.
“If Bangladeshis are more important than the North East people in the eyes of the NDA government and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, he should become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh,” Kharjahrin said.