Arunachal Pradesh’s human rights lawyer and environmental activist Ebo Mili was prevented from boarding a flight to Dhaka from Kolkata airport on Saturday, due to a lookout notice issued by the state police.
Mili was scheduled to attend the Regional Infrastructure Monitoring Alliance (RIMA) conference in Dhaka from October 5 to 7.
The existence of the lookout notice was confirmed by IGP (Law and Order) Chukhu Apa. Mili has been a prominent opponent of the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, and the police have filed several cases against him related to his activism.
Mili stated he was “very tired” of the Arunachal police’s actions, noting that he had fully complied with all recent police summons.
According to Mili, Kolkata immigration officials told him the state police had “raised a security flag” against him, leading to him being offloaded.
Mili also claimed he had specifically inquired with the police about any lookout notice before traveling, seeking clarification and stating he would not have traveled if he knew one existed.
“It seems the lower-ranking officials had no idea about it,” he said.
This is the second recent instance of an activist related to the Siang project being stopped from traveling abroad.
Last month, Bhanu Tatak, legal adviser to the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, was stopped at the Delhi airport based on a similar lookout notice from the state police.
Tatak was en route to Dublin for a three-month fellowship as a ‘visiting specialist’ at Dublin City University.