[ Bengia Ajum ]
AALO, 8 Dec: A major religious clash was averted on Saturday at Kombo-Bili village in West Siang district when a group of Christians was stopped from celebrating Advent Christmas by local villagers, most of whom follow the indigenous faith.
Both the Christmas organisers and those opposing the celebration belong to the local Galo tribe. Tension escalated when the Christian group began marching towards a ground near Kombo-Bili village and was stopped by the residents of Kombo.
The administration, led by the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police, rushed to the spot to defuse the situation. A brief scuffle broke out between the two groups, but the police intervened and brought the situation under control. “It was a scuffle for a short period of time with no injury to men or materials, and it was brought under control immediately. I was present on the ground with the DC. No property was damaged and no one suffered any injury,” said West Siang SP Kardak Riba.
Kombo area is composed of seven villages: Kombo-Pomte, Kombo-Tarsu, Kombo-Papak, Kombo-Jirdin, Kombo-Raglam, Kombo-Kamen, and Kombo-Bili. The villagers said they are not against any religion and that it is wrong to portray them as anti-Christian. “The Christian leaders claimed they had taken permission from the DC to celebrate Advent Christmas. But shouldn’t they have taken permission from the village authorities too? In Arunachal, every village has its own authorities, including the gaon burah and head gaon burah. Why did they never bother to seek permission from the village authorities?” questioned a Kombo resident.
The villagers alleged that Christian leaders tried to undermine the village authorities by misguiding believers. “They could have avoided this confrontation by having proper conversations with the village authorities before going ahead with the celebration. Also, this attempt to divide the Galo community into Christian Galo and indigenous faith follower Galo is wrong,” the villager added.
On the other hand, the Christian believers alleged that they were denied their fundamental right to celebrate a religious festival. “We took proper permission from the deputy commissioner’s office for our celebration. There were some complaints from villagers who thought we were organising a healing crusade. All doubts were cleared, and accordingly, the DC gave us permission. But we were forcefully stopped and humiliated,” said Horsen Ete, president of the West Siang Christian Forum.
He said that they left the venue after conducting a prayer. “On our own legally acquired land, we were not allowed to celebrate Christmas in advance. As the situation was tense, we conducted a prayer and left the venue. We could not even have a proper lunch. Later, we had to shift to another venue to avoid creating a law-and-order problem,” said Ete.
He also claimed that the place where they were celebrating was legally purchased by Christian believers. “The West Siang administration never allows the Christian community to organise any event at the general ground. Left with no option, we bought this land specifically for organising our events. But even here, some people are opposing our presence, which is unfortunate,” added Ete.
As of now, the situation remains calm, but locals warned that if the issue is not resolved properly, it might turn tense again in the future.
