The residents of Mukroh village in Meghalaya's West Jaintia Hills district were armed with machetes, rods, and sticks. They gathered in front of a beat office under the Kheroni Forest Range in Assam along the inter-state border on Tuesday night and set the structure on fire.
Officials informed that the mob vandalized the forest office and torched properties such as furniture, documents, and motorcycles parked in the complex. However, no injury to the forest personnel posted there has been reported so far, one of the officials told PTI.
He said that the group of villagers had left the area before a team of policemen and other security personnel reached the spot.
Following the incident, the Assam Police continued to advise car owners to avoid entering the neighboring state for safety. Police personnel also put up barricades and asked people not to travel to the hill state in a vehicle bearing a number plate from Assam.
Sudhakar Singh, Deputy Commissioner (East) of Guwahati Police said, "Since yesterday, we have been advising people not to go to Meghalaya till the situation completely normalizes. We are only requesting the private and small car owners not to travel as miscreants are targeting such vehicles there."
However, he said that the commercial vehicles have not been stopped as of now.
"A car with an Assam number plate was burnt in Meghalaya's capital Shillong on Tuesday evening after miscreants asked the passengers to leave the vehicle," sources told PTI.
Some taxi drivers, who returned to Guwahati on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, said that the Meghalaya Police escorted them to the Assam border, but still, stones were pelted on their vehicles by onlookers while on the move.
The Meghalaya government has suspended mobile internet services in seven districts of the state following a firing incident in the Mukroh area of West Jaintia Hills District where four people were killed.
(With PTI inputs)
