PASIGHAT (The Thursday Times) — Police in Arunachal Pradesh took anti-dam activist Tajong Talom back into custody outside the Pasighat sub-jail on Wednesday, moments after he walked out on bail, according to his family, lawyers, and eyewitnesses.
Talom, a young man from Pasighat, had been held since October 24, the day after protests against the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project turned violent in the town. A district and sessions court granted him bail earlier on Wednesday.
Relatives and supporters who had gathered at the gate to welcome him said jail staff first asked them to move back, and a police team then detained Talom as he stepped out. His family and lawyers said no arrest order was produced and the grounds were not explained at the scene.
According to the grounds of arrest in a police notice, as reported locally, the new case concerns mob violence, rioting, arson, an assault on security personnel, and the alleged theft of government property on October 23. Police have not made a public statement.
A fight over a mega-dam
The 11,000-megawatt project on the Siang, the river that becomes the Brahmaputra downstream, is planned partly as India’s answer to China’s giant dam upstream. Many members of the Adi community fear it will flood their villages and farmland, and protests have grown since the government began survey work.
On October 23, protesters allegedly vandalised public property and set fire to an office of the state-run hydropower company in Pasighat, after police fired tear gas at the crowd. Police later said 18 students from a local college had been arrested, 10 of whom remain in judicial custody. In the days that followed, forces were rushed to the state and dozens were held under an anti-terror law.
Earlier this month the state government released four prominent anti-dam activists held under the state’s unlawful activities law and invited the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum for talks. The forum has not yet responded, and two other activists, Ebo Mili and Otul Jerang, remain in jail after being refused bail.
