Now Reading: Arunachal police use tear gas on anti-dam protest, four women hurt
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Arunachal police use tear gas on anti-dam protest, four women hurt
The Story in Brief
At least four women were injured on Friday (23 October 2026) when police fired tear gas at a 12-hour bandh against the proposed 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang district, officials said. Protesters at Dite-Dime village, carrying machetes and stones, were dispersed after they tried to breach barricades and vandalise police vehicles, according to Siang Superintendent of Police Kamdam Sikhom. Two police vehicles were reportedly burnt near Ranaghat check post.
The bandh was called by local bodies including the Adi Baane Kebang United and the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum Youth Wing, demanding the release of 10 detained activists, withdrawal of central forces, and a halt to pre-feasibility surveys. Scroll.in reported that four activists from Geku village were detained on 9 October under the state's preventive detention law and remain in custody. Chief Minister Pema Khandu defended the detentions, saying those disrupting law and order would be dealt with legally. The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee has demanded an independent inquiry into the use of force.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The three outlets present the same events with distinct framing. Scroll.in leads with a detailed account of preventive detentions and allegations of militarisation, characterising the state response as a coordinated crackdown and giving space to activists and village headmen who say they were sacked. Arunachal24 and Daily Pioneer lead with the Friday clash, police accounts of stone-pelting, and the bandh's broader impact, presenting the government's stated rationale that the project counters Chinese upstream dams. Scroll.in omits that rationale in its lead but mentions it later, Arunachal24 and Daily Pioneer do not report the sackings or the details of the preventive detention order. The Congress demand for an inquiry appears only in Daily Pioneer. The coverage is thus split between a civil-liberties frame and a law-and-order frame, with neither side's account of the clash reconciled. The next concrete step is the pending pre-feasibility survey and the protesters' demand that it be halted.
Coverage: 3 sources, 1 government-critical, 2 neutral
Sources (3): scroll.in (government critical), arunachal24.in (neutral report), dailypioneer.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
