Arunachal asks Centre to act into army vandalism

Several organisations in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday sought the Centre’s intervention into an imbroglio following the alleged vandalism at the police station by nearly 100 armymen at Bomdila in West Kameng district on Saturday.

Police lodged five FIRs against army personnel belonging to 2nd Arunachal Scouts, who had allegedly stormed into a police station and attacked some policemen following the arrest of two personnel on charges of misbehaving with some women in a nearby festival on Friday night.

The army group had allegedly assaulted the senior police and district administration officers who tried to control the situation.

Army, however, said the entire incident was the outcome of “highhandedness by police and lax attitude by the civil administration” and alleged that two armymen were physically assaulted by police.

“The police did not act in a responsible manner and violated the laid down procedure for dealing with the men in uniform. Instead of locking up the two army persons, police should have handed them over to military authorities,” defence public relations officer Lt Col Harsh Wardhan Pande said in a statement.

Local residents, who staged a protest in Bomdila on Monday, said the Centre should intervene as it had resulted in fear among people and damaged the image of the armymen who are posted to protect the state from neighbouring China. Locals said some armymen belonging to the 2nd Arunachal Scouts had resorted to similar vandalism in 2014 in Bomdila.