IT News
Imphal, Dec 7:
Many more organizations continue to pour in condemnation to the killing of 15 civilians in Mon district of Nagaland and demanded punishment of the AR trooper who were responsible for the killing.
Committee on Human Rights Manipur (COHR), Eastern Himalayan Women Forum (EHWF), North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF), World Meitei Council (WMC), and Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL) among others demanded repeal of Armed Forces Special Power Act which empowered the Security force to commit such gruesome criminal activities.
Eastern Himalayan Women Forum (EHWF) said, “We condemn the act of the security forces where they shot before identifying the occupants. After checking the bodies, the security forces realized those killed were unlikely to be underground military group but miners since they were carrying mining equipment. This is purely an act of atrocity which is empowered by AFSPA”.
The Forum blames the Nagaland Intelligence Bureau terming the incident as a signed of its failure.
“We are anguished over an unfortunate incident in Nagaland’s Oting, Mon. We express our deepest condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives. We also pray for another two persons who were brought by the security personnel and hospitalized at Dibrugarh Hospital for speedy recovery”, the statement said.
The Forum demanded to repeal Armed forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from all North Eastern states & Kashmir and form proper Special Investigation Team (SIT) that will thoroughly probe this incident to ensure justice to the bereaved families so that such incident should not occur again. The EHWF also ask the government to give proper compensation in cash and kind to the bereaved families.
North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) while expressing strong condemnation demanded to constitute an independent, credible and impartial investigation team to examine the case of killing by AR at Tiru-Voting area of Mon district of Nagaland within a time frame so that this report can be submitted to the double bench of the Supreme Court of India presently working on the cases of Extrajudicial Execution for further legal action against the perpetrators and the responsible commander of the concern AR in Sonari.
It also appealed to all the CMs of the region and the PM of India to provide immediate compensation of Rupees 10 lacs each as relief and rehabilitation of the families who lost their bread earners.
The NEDF also appealed to all the CMs in the region to call an emergency meeting to discuss the situation of high handedness of AR under AFSPA and take steps to repeal AFSPA1958 from the North Eastern region of India immediately and also appealed to respect recommendation by Justice Santosh Hegde Commission of Supreme Court of India , Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission ,12 Special Rapporteur and Treaty Bodies of Human Right Council of UN to repeal AFSPA as a matter of urgency.
Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL) also expressed strong condemnation to the Mon district firing incident in Nagaland.
In a statement the KKL demanded immediate trial of the culprits as war criminals.
“Nagaland state is said to be under a seized fire agreement with the Government of India. However the AFSPA is still enforced there to justify such genocidal killings and hence we demand that Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, should immediately move the Indian Parliament to repeal the AFSPA with immediate. We wonder why mainstream Indian media is keeping a stoic silence over such a heinous crime against humanity”, statement said.
It further added, “We, the Manipuris, have been appealing the Indian Government for the last more than 50 years to remove the AFSPA. And now, not the Manipur , but the draconian scenerio came up to the neighbouring state Nagaland recently which may be one of the cruel incident faced by the Nagas from the Indian Army under AFSPA. It is high time my dear brethrens of the entire North-East of India to awake and revoke and unroot the AFSPA from our soil. Lets us unite and fight against the AFSPA 1958”.
