Complaint filed against Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim over social media post

A village council in Meghalaya filed a complaint against journalist Patricia Mukhim over a post she put up on Facebook, claiming it might incite "communal tension".

Mukhim, the editor of the Shillong Times, had put up a post on July 4 about an attack on five youths in Lawsohtun village by "murderous elements". In the post, she wrote: "Why should our non-tribal brethren continue to live in perpetual fear in their own state? Those born and brought up here have as much right to call Meghalaya their state as the indigenous tribal does."

In the complaint against Mukhim, Lawsohtun village head Lurshai Shylla said that Mukhim's post mentioned the 1979 conflict between tribals and non-tribals, and that some media houses in West Bengal had already reported on the matter with "communal colour", NDTV reports. The complaint stated that this put "all Khasis outside in extreme danger".

In her Facebook post, Mukhim had written: "The fact that such attackers and trouble mongers since 1979 have never been arrested and if arrested never penalised according to law suggests that Meghalaya has been a failed state for a long time now..."

East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police, Sylvester Nongtynger, told PTI that 11 suspects have been detained while no arrests have been made in the attack on the five youths. Mukhim said she would fight the complaint against her in court.

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