A team of the Meghalaya Fire and Emergency Services on Monday recovered the three INSAS rifles that masked miscreants snatched from the police during the violence and arson on August 15.
The rifles were recovered from the Umkhrah river flowing through State capital Shillong. “The firearms were fished out in the afternoon from a spot near the Umpohliew Bridge across the river,” a government spokesperson said.
The Fire Services team had conducted the search about 48 hours after an anonymous letter to the headman of Mawlai Town Dorbar -- the most volatile area during the unrest on Independence Day -- claimed the rifles had been tossed into the river.
The sender of the letter, a copy of which was sent to the East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, claimed he had taken the rifles from the teenagers who had snatched them from the police and dumped them in the river in order to save the boys from trouble.
The police, though, had underplayed the claim.
The rifles were snatched from the Umshning-Mawkynroh police outpost after a mob attack.
Killing of former extremist leader
The trigger for the mob violence was the killing of former extremist leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew in an alleged encounter by the police on August 13. His funeral coincided with the official Independence Day celebration.
Thangkhiew was the general secretary of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council that seeks self-rule for the areas inhabited by the Khasi-Jaintia community in Meghalaya.
The police on August 13 had gone to his residence to arrest him in connection with IED (improvised explosive device) blasts in Shillong and in East Jaintia Hills district headquarters Khliehriat.
“The police shot him in self-defence after he attacked the team with a knife,” Director General of Police R. Chandranathan had said.
