Shillong, Dec 9: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) a conglomeration of various students’ body of northeast on Thursday held a protest and candle light vigil in solidarity against the killing of civilians in Nagaland’s Mon district on December 4.
Sadon Blah president of Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF) said that If one reads between the lines of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) it is no different from the ‘Nuremberg Law’ that Hitler made for the first world war to exterminate the Jews.
Blah said that sadly there have been many cases of armed forces’ misuse, excessive use of power by the armed forces in the northeast.
He said that AFSPA is applied only in northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
“The big question is why it is so, in north east we are having around 23 districts in the whole of India there are 96 districts which are affected by Maoist and Naxalites you compare the 23 and the 96, but the Indian government since the inception of the Naxalite and the Maoist movement never dare to declare AFSPA in those areas,†Blah added.
“Is it because of our cultural difference. Is it because of the chinky eyes, is it because of our heights, our looks that we are discriminated by the use of bullets,†he added.
Ther HNYF president said that why AFSPA was not implemented inspite of the fact that Maoists and the Naxalites in one go would kill 70-80 police and army personnel which has never occurred in the northeast inspite of heights of militancy and extremism.
“This is a step motherly treatment by the government of India and it is very sad to say that Amit Shah said it was a case of mistaken identity lives were loss you cannot conclude by saying it was a case of mistaken identity,†he added.
Meanwhile, Samuel Jyrwa chairman of NESO said that the killing by security forces in Mon district was not a one off incident in Nagaland.
“It has been happening since 1950s they have been committing these crimes all over the region like the bombing in Mizoram by the Air Force,†Jyrwa said.
The NESO chairman of t NESO also said that this portray the attitude of people of India that we are different from them.
Jyrwa said that AFSPA was imposed by British in 1942 after independence where even people of the region also fought.
“But this law was imposed on region and this shows the mindset of the government of India towards the people of the region,†he added.
Jyrwa added that the time has come for the people of the region to demand from the government of India to repeal AFSPA.
