An influential social organisation in Meghalaya has written to the administration in the State capital Shillong, seeking to know why the Indian Air Force (IAF) has put up posters, reading ‘Trespassers will be shot’, on the wall around its facility.
The IAF’s Eastern Air Command is situated on the outskirts of Shillong.
On Friday, the Federation of Khasi Jaintia Garo People (FKJGP) wrote to East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Matsiewdor War Nongbri, requesting that she seek an explanation from the IAF. The poster, also written in the Khasi script as ‘Trespasser yn siat’, was scaring the locals, it said.
“This kind of threat of use of force has caused concern among residents,” FKJGP leader Kitboklang Nongphlang said. He said the locals had neither been harbouring any ill-will towards the Air Command, nor had anyone trespassed into the premises, since it was shifted to the present site in 1963.
“Any error of judgement on the part of either the villagers or the armed IAF personnel could result in fatality, given the threat,” the letter said.
An IAF spokesperson said sign boards were not a threat, but a “warning and information, which is normal”, and in compliance with the guidelines.
