PRC Row : Actor Satish Kaushik’s Theatres Torched in Itanagar Violence
ITANAGAR : Amid widespread violence for a third day, the BJP-led Arunachal Pradesh government on Sunday scrapped its decision of granting permanent resident certificates (PRC) to six non-Arunachal Pradesh Scheduled Tribes (APSTs) living in the Namsai and Changlang districts.
Taking to Twitter, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “Arunachal Pradesh State Govt has already passed an order not to accept PRC as recommended by JHPC. Everyone must come together without blaming each other for the sake of peace.
It’s very unfortunate that innocent lives were lost in the violence.” Earlier in the day, a mob tried to set ablaze the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and also tried to target residence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.
At least two persons have died during the ongoing protests so far, even as 1,000 paramilitary troops have been dispatched to the state. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has dispatched 10 additional companies of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for deployment in law-and-order duties in Itanagar and other violence-hit places. Section 144, that prohibits assembly of more than four people in an area, has also been imposed in Itanagar.
The six communities include Deoris, Sonowal Kacharis, Morans, Adivasis, Mishings and Gorkhas. Most of them are recognised as Scheduled Tribes in neighboring Assam.
Meanwhile, Five theatres that actor Satish Kaushik is associated with were burnt in the protests that rocked Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanager on Friday night against the government move to grant permanent residency certificates (PRCs) to certain categories of people. “I am associated with five theatres named Picture Time. I am a promoter. I got a call this (Saturday) morning from the owner, Sushil Choudhary, that our five theatres were burnt,” Kaushik told news agency IANS on the phone while being evacuated to Guwahati along with 50 other delegates to the first Itanagar International Film Festival, which was cancelled after the violence erupted.
“I reached yesterday (Friday) and went to the hotel. I was supposed to get ready for the evening function… But they (organisers) said ‘hold on’ there is some problem … The event could not take place due to protests. The protesters were on a rampage and pelting stones. We couldn’t make it to the convention centre. “There was a fire. We got stuck. We thought we’d leave in the morning but we got stuck.””We crossed the border with the help of an IAS officer. He sent people and about 10-12 vehicles for us. Then we crossed the (Arunachal Pradesh) border,” Kaushik added.
(With inputs from PTI)
