Mokokchung, October 4 (MTNews): In regard to the 24th September, 2022 bomb planting incident in Tamenglong district by one CRPF personnel, the Global Naga Forum has said that they are “outraged and anguished by the deliberate attempt of the Indian Army to kill innocent Naga citizens again,” that too, by planting an improvised explosive device (IED).
The Forum, in light of the armed forces-related murders and violations of Naga people’s basic human rights just in the last nine months, starting from December 2021 to date, through a public statement demanded that “Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India, under whose watch these murders and violations of human rights have taken place, and continue to take place, should be held responsible, and the perpetrators of the crimes be prosecuted under civil law.”
The Forum also demanded that the 64-year old Indian military law, AFSPA, “designed to kill Nagas with impunity” be repealed and that a Supreme Court retired judge-led independent judicial inquiry into the bomb planting incident “on the ground of prima facie evidence confessed by Mr. Thiyam Ashok Singh.” The Global Naga Forum asserted that it is “conscience and duty-bound to demand.”
According to the Forum, the explosive device was planted by army personnel of the 87th Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Battalion at Kambiron at the instruction of commanding Inspector Dogra Singh, and in collusion with the 39th Assam Rifles of Nungba HQ Tamenglong district, Manipur.
“This is the fourth such device planted in the Nungba area in the last four years by the Assam Rifles, who have officially named themselves ‘Friends of the Hill People’,” the GNF statement read.
It further stated that the failed attempt to kill innocent Nagas in Tamenglong district came at a significant time for Nagas as a whole, for several related reasons.
“This was at a time when the renovation program for the freedom fighter Jadonang Memorial was underway at Puilang village in Tamenglong District. Had it not been thwarted by the vigilant women folks of the village, many innocent people would have been killed in the explosive mayhem,” the Forum stated.
It also pointed out that two weeks prior, the Assam Rifles forcefully occupied nine Naga villages in neighboring district of Ukhrul, Manipur while only a few months before that, on 4th December 2021, Indian commandos massacred 14 innocent civilians in a botched Indian Army ambush against “supposed Naga nationalist group” near Otting village, Mon district, Nagaland.
It further added that, in April of 2022, in the Naga area of Tirap, Changlang, and Longding District in Arunachal Pradesh, the 12 Para Special Commando Force willfully shot two Chasa Villagers who were coming back to their village after a day of fishing.
“As the four youths were climbing up the hill towards their village, the 12 Para Special Commando unit shot at them from the back injuring two of them,” the Forum said, adding that this was not just a reckless act but an attempt to murder.
“The simple reason all these military crimes against Nagas keep happening repeatedly and predictably is the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which has been in force since 1958, even during ceasefire periods and while the government of India is supposedly in the final stages of negotiations with the Nagas for a peaceful resolution of the 75-year old Indo-Naga political problem,” the Forum stated.