Newmai News Network
Senapati | October 24
The All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) expressed “outrage and condemnation in the strongest terms possible” over a reported drone strike by the Indian armed forces on a village in Manipur, alleging it led to the “brutal killing” of two innocent civilians, including a seven-year-old child.
In a statement, the ANSAM identified the deceased as Phiphot Wangsa, a 7-year-old Grade 1 student of Khammoi Mission School, and Khampei Wangsa, 27, the joint secretary of the Khammoi Students' Union. The incident is said to have occurred in Khammoi village under the East Konyak Region on October 20, 2025.
ANSAM described the act as “barbaric, unprovoked, and inhuman,” and a “flagrant violation of international human rights.” The association alleged that this “atrocious and cowardly act” represents “yet another chapter in a long and painful narrative of systematic militarisation, occupation and subjugation of the Naga people in their own homeland under the oppressive shadow of Indian state power.”
The statement contended that the “taking away of two innocent Naga lives” is not an isolated incident but part of a “continued and deliberate undeclared war” being unleashed upon Naga civilians. It asserted that such actions “negate the hard-earned Indo-Naga peace process,” which it said has been built on decades of “mutual understanding and respect, sacrifice, dialogue, and political understanding at the highest level.”
ANSAM also raised serious questions about the tactics employed by the security forces, questioning the “illegal use of drone combats upon the Naga people.” It claimed that this was the second targeted drone strike on a Naga village this year by “Government of India sponsored Indian armed machineries,” and termed such actions a “crime against humanity.”
Reiterating its long-standing political position, ANSAM stated that the “Naga issue is not a law and order matter, but a political conflict with historical legitimacy.” It accused the state of “continuous militarisation” and “indiscriminate killing of unarmed civilians,” which it labelled as “acts of state terrorism, designed to suppress the rightful political aspirations of the Naga people for self-determination and peace with justice.”
The association declared its “unwavering solidarity” with the bereaved families, whom it referred to as the “families of the two martyrs,” and the people of Khammoi village. “Their sacrifices shall never be forgotten. The blood they shed shall be remembered as a sacred offering in the long and righteous struggle for the freedom and dignity of the Naga nation,” the statement read.
In the wake of the incident, ANSAM urged the Naga people living across “imaginary boundary lines” to remain “united, vigilant, and resolute for our cause.” It added, “We shall not be broken by fear, nor defeated by oppression.”
The group also called upon United Nations Organizations (UNO), international human rights organisations, and the “conscientious international community” to intervene and press for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958. It described the law as “draconian” and alleged it “has been weaponized by the government of India to disseminate the lives and aspirations of the struggling people in the sub-continent.”
ANSAM, “in consonance with the Naga Students’ Federation,” reaffirmed its “resolute stance of non-cooperation with the Indian armed forces across all its constituent units and sub-ordinate bodies until AFSPA is repealed.”
