Petrol bombs hurled at Meghalaya CM’s private residence

Unidentified miscreants on Sunday night lobbed a petrol bomb at the residence of Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, police said.

The incident took place around 10.15 pm when vehicle-borne attackers lobbed two Molotov cocktail bottles at the premises of his personal residence at Third Mile in Upper Shillong, they said. No one was injured in the incident, according to a senior district police officer.

The first bottle was lobbed at the front part of the house while the second one was thrown behind the backyard, he said, prompting the guards there to douse the fire immediately. The state government has imposed a curfew in Shillong and banned mobile internet services in at least four districts as vandalism and arson rocked the state capital and nearby areas on Independence Day.

Meghalaya Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui resigned amid violence in Shillong over the police shooting of a former militant. Rymbui also urged the CM to institute a judicial inquiry into the shooting of Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, the self-styled general secretary of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council who had surrendered.

Thangkhiew, who had surrendered in 2018, was shot dead on August 13 when he allegedly tried to attack a police team with a knife during a raid at his house in connection with a series of IED blasts in the state.