New Delhi: Tension prevailed in Arunachal Pradesh’s Pasighat on Saturday (October 24) and shops in the town stayed closed, a day after security forces and protesters agitating against a proposed mega-dam in the state clashed there.Activist Ebo Mili and youth leader Otul Jerang surrendered to the police on Saturday to signal their condemnation of the violence and to appeal to young protesters to remain peaceful.The violence broke out in Pasighat late on Friday towards the end of a 12-hour bandh call against the controversial Siang Upper Megapurpose Project (SUMP) dam, when security forces used stun grenades and tear gas, and protesters indulged in arson and vandalism.Protesters initially set fire to six police vehicles as well as to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation’s office in the town before vandalising an office of the Adi Bane Kebang organisation, setting fire to vehicles at the police station and ransacking homes owned by BJP state president Kaling Moyong, BJP MLA for Pasighat West Ninong Ering and BJP MLA for Mariyang-Geku Oni Panyang, the Arunachal Times reported.Businesses and shops remained shut in Pasighat on Saturday, the newspaper reported, adding that the authorities in East Siang district imposed prohibitory orders in the town as well as in Mebo and Ruksin.Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu condemned the violence on Saturday and called on protesters to remain peaceful. The government is open to discussion on the SUMP, he added.Mili and Jerang in video statements after surrendering on Saturday claimed that the demonstration in Pasighat was peaceful but turned violent after security forces lobbed a stun grenade and tear gas shells into the crowd. They surrendered to the police to signal their condemnation of what happened and to call on protesters to remain peaceful, they said.Proposed as a 11,500 megawatt dam on the Siang river – which enters Arunachal as the Yarlung Tsangpo from Tibet and flows into Assam as the Brahmaputra – the SUMP has over the last year and beyond attracted protests from local residents who are concerned about displacement, the loss of homes and agricultural lands as well as the environmental impact the project will entail.Agitators also oppose the deployment of security forces to enable pre-feasibility report activities for the project amid local opposition.Though the government argues the project will act a cushion for floods in the event of a sudden release of water from the massive Medog dam that China is constructing upstream of the river, experts say the SUMP may be of limited use in this regard because as its primary job will be to generate hydropower, which will necessitate the maintenance of high water levels.Among the demands of those carrying out the bandh on Friday was the release of ten arrested activists, the reinstatement of suspended village chiefs and the withdrawal of pre-feasibility activities in addition to security forces.Protests against the SUMP have turned violent before too, most recently last month, where agitators vandalised the home of an MLA and torched a police vehicle amid CM Khandu’s visit.