Arunachal Protesters Torch NHPC Office in Pasighat After Police Fire Tear Gas
Protesters in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, set fire to a National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) office and damaged a police station on Friday after police fired tear gas during an anti-dam demonstration. Five women were injured in a separate clash near Geku the same day. The district administration has since banned gatherings of four or more people.
The violence is the latest flashpoint in a monthslong standoff over the proposed 12,500-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), which NHPC is planning to build on the Siang river. Indigenous community groups, including the apex tribal body Adi Bane Kebang United and the SUMP Affected Area Youth Association, have opposed survey and pre-feasibility work for the project for months.
Ten activists opposing the project were arrested earlier in October, according to Scroll.in. Friday’s unrest followed weeks of rising tension between protesters and security forces deployed around NHPC survey sites in the Siang and East Siang districts.
What happened in Pasighat and Dite-Dime
In Pasighat, protesters vandalised and set fire to the NHPC office and a police station after security personnel fired tear gas. Vehicles parked at the office were torched, and protesters threw stones at the police station, Scroll.in reported, citing a senior police officer and a government official.
In a separate incident the same day at Dite-Dime, near Geku in Siang district, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of roughly 150 to 200 protesters who had travelled from Upper Siang. At least five women were injured in the clash.
A senior police officer also confirmed that the homes of three local leaders, Pasighat West MLA Ninong Ering, Mariyang-Geku legislator Oni Panyang, and Arunachal Pradesh BJP state chief Kaling Moyong, were allegedly vandalised, along with the office of Adi Bane Kebang United in Pasighat.
What police say triggered the violence
Siang Superintendent of Police Kamdam Sikom said the crowd had remained peaceful until around 7am on Friday, when protesters carrying machetes, lathis and slingshots violated a prohibitory order already in place and began throwing stones, prompting police to fire tear gas.
A separate, unnamed government official gave a different account to Scroll.in, saying security forces fired tear gas without provocation and that this is what angered the crowd. The same official alleged that protesters then vandalised the homes of the three local leaders in retaliation. Scroll.in said a formal police statement on the sequence of events was awaited, and no arrest count for Friday’s violence had been given as of Saturday.
Journalist Rokibuz Zaman, who posted an eyewitness account on X, reported that protesters set the NHPC office alight after police fired tear gas at the crowd gathered outside it.
On Saturday, the Pasighat administration imposed fresh prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, banning the assembly of four or more people in the town. The same day, two protesters, advocate Ebo Mili and youth leader Otul Jerang, surrendered to police. Both said the youth protesting the project had no role in the mob violence.
What officials and protesters are saying
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Friday that protesters had been “fed some misinformation” and invited civil society groups for talks. He had earlier, on October 11, defended the arrests of the ten activists, saying villagers had been misled about the project.
Protest groups, including the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum Youth Wing and the Adi Galo Welfare Society, have demanded the release of the detained activists, the reinstatement of suspended village heads, withdrawal of pre-feasibility work linked to the dam, and the removal of paramilitary and central forces from the region.
What happens next
The prohibitory order in Pasighat remains in force, and no formal police statement on arrests from Friday’s violence had been issued as of Saturday. Whether the Chief Minister’s offer of talks with civil society groups leads to any pause in NHPC’s survey work for the project is the next thing to watch.
FAQ
What is the project residents are protesting? It is a proposed 12,500-megawatt hydropower project that NHPC plans to build on the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh, currently at the survey and pre-feasibility stage.
Why are residents protesting? Community groups say they oppose the project’s survey work, the deployment of paramilitary forces to the area, and the arrest of activists and suspension of village heads who joined earlier protests.
Were there two separate clashes? Yes. The NHPC office and police station were targeted in Pasighat, while a separate clash with tear gas and injuries to five women took place the same day at Dite-Dime, near Geku in Siang district, roughly 150 to 200 protesters.
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