Police on Sunday remained clueless about arson incidents in the Meghalaya capital over the past two days involving unidentified assailants hurling petrol bombs. Police suspect groups demanding introduction of inner line permit, a British-era law, to contain migration of outsiders to the state.
In pre-dawn attacks Sunday, assailants lobbed petrol bombs at the residence of Avishek Chettri and at the house of Chandrabala Chettri inside the Sulleman compound near the lumdiengjri police station, East Khasi Hills district police chief Mariahom Kharkrang told IANS.
No one was injured in the attacks that occurred around 2.45am, he said.Sunday's incident took place just 16 hours after a tea-stall was set ablaze in which its owner was severely burnt.
On Saturday, two to three masked men lobbed a petrol bomb at a tea-stall in Bishnupur Bazaar in which 45-year-old tea-stall owner Bishashwar Das received grievous burns. Das was shifted to a hospital in Guwahati after his condition deteriorated in hospital here.
Meghalaya, particularly the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region, has witnessed several cases of arson since September 2 after talks between Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and pro-Inner line Permit (IlP) pressure groups reached a dead end.