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Shillong, July 14: Five West Khasi Hills residents today resumed the fast-unto-death to protest against non-resolution of the Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute at Nongstoin, the headquarters of Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills district.
Pynskhemlang Nongshlong, 28, from Rambrai village, along with four women — Piarnalin Nongphud of Nongma village, Bralinda Kharlyngdoh of Langpih, Phisila Nonglang of Nongma and Misfulness K. Sanglein of Iew Nongma, all from West Khasi Hills — resumed the fast at Nongstoin after being allegedly asked yesterday to leave Langpih, where they had been staging the fast since June 30.
The fast ended on Thursday after People’s Movement leader and UDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit declared that all activists had agreed to call it off. This declaration was, however, slammed yesterday by Nongshlong, who alleged that the legislator had made a false statement and asserted that the fast had not been called off.
An official said Nongshlong had been at the Nongstoin civil hospital from last night till this afternoon.
Today, he left the hospital to resume the fast at a location within the territorial jurisdiction of Hima Nongstoin.
A source said the Syiem (chief) of Hima Nongstoin, Phylla Sing Syiem, has reportedly prohibited Nongshlong from staging the fast there. “The chief did not allow the strike to be staged there as the executive committee of the hima was yet to decide whether to allow the youth to go ahead with the fast at the site. He will now go back to the hospital, and tomorrow, he is expected to take a decision whether to come to Shillong to stage the fast,” the source said.
Nongshlong, along with the four women, left the venue and went straight to the civil hospital, where they will resume the fast before taking a fresh decision.
Yesterday, the heads of the Hima Raidmynsaw, under which Langpih falls, had asked Nongshlong to leave the village and to stage the strike elsewhere.The Hill State People’s Democratic Party had yesterday decided to pull out of the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government, voicing dissatisfaction with the pace of the boundary problem resolution process.
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