Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district administration has invited an Assam-based Hindutva outfit, Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (KSP), among others, for a discussion on the issue of proposed annual yatra to the Krem Mawjymbuin Cave at Mawsynram.

The KSP had threatened to impose a blockade on the Guwahati-Shillong road at Brynihat from Wednesday.

On December 16, the KSP wrote to the East Khasi Hills district administration, appealing to the Meghalaya government to take necessary steps to respond to its demand for resumption of worship of the naturally-formed Shivling inside the cave, about 60km from Shillong, within 10 days or face blockade on the Guwahati-Shillong road at Jorabat in Kamrup district before Christmas.

The Dorbar Shnong (village council) of Mawsynram, where the cave is located, had denied permission for the annual pilgrimage held in the month of Shravan (July-August). Leading Meghalaya organisations and citizens have backed the village council’s decision of not allowing religious rituals at a tourist site. Meghalaya is a Christian-majority state.

The Shivling is made of stalagmite.

The high court of Meghalaya had on August 7 directed the village council and the organisation, Yatra, which had moved the court, to amicably resolve the annual pilgrimage issue.

Yatra has been organising the annual pilgrimage since 2011 but the village council had this year denied them the permission even though they had secured permission from the district administration.

In its December 23 letter to senior district officials, the Rangbah Shnong (Dorbar Shnong) and Central Puja Committee, Meghalaya, East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner has informed about holding a meeting of the committee “looking after the maintenance, management and other matters related to the cave” on January 3 from 11am at his office.

The meeting will “discuss the issue of the proposed yatra at Mawjymbuin, Mawsynram Cave, East Khasi Hills district”.

A copy of the letter was also sent to the KSP president Satya Ranjan Borah, requesting him to attend the January 3 meeting.

The KSP had been pursuing the issue since the village council denied permission to Yatra, asserting it was “anti-culture and anti-social”. It had earlier decided to block both the Guwahati-Shillong and the Paiken-Tura roads for vehicles entering Assam from Meghalaya but put off the blockade after the high court’s intervention.

“The cave is not only a popular tourist destination but because of the presence of the Shivling, it had also become a destination for Hindu pilgrims, especially during Shravan, when Bol Bom yatris offer water on the Shivling,” Borah said, welcoming the invite.

He further said that they only want the worship of the Shivling must go on.