Govts of Meghalaya, Assam have written to CBI to take over Mukroh firing incident: Prestone Tynsong

Shillong: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday said the state government and the Assam administration have written to the CBI, requesting it to take over the probe into the last year's Mukroh firing incident along the disputed border between the two northeastern states.

The governments of Assam and Meghalaya had on September 30 decided to request the CBI to take over the investigation into the 2022 Mukroh violence, in which six people were killed, he said.

"We have already written a letter. Assam (Assam government) has also done it," Tynsong told PTI when asked whether the probe into the Mukroh firing incident was handed over to the CBI.

"The ball is now in the CBI's court," he said.

The firing incident took place on November 22 last year when the Assam Forest Protection Force fired on Mukroh villagers of Meghalaya after a truck allegedly laden with illegally felled timber was intercepted by them.

Five of the six killed in the violence were Meghalaya residents and one was an Assam forest guard.

Meghalaya was carved out from Assam as a separate state in 1972, and it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to disputes in 12 areas of the 884.9 km-long border between the two states.

Both states had signed an MoU resolving six of the areas of differences and talks are ongoing to resolve the remaining ones.