New Delhi, January 24 (MExN): The Joint Naga Civil Societies, Delhi (CJNCSD) has termed the arrest of a Naga man by the Manipur Police Commando as “political witch-hunting”. The man identified as Sangthuanang Pamei of Tamenglong district is a staff at UBI Bank.
Asserting that this is not the first instance that the ruling dispensation has attempted to criminalize the hill tribal communities, the CJNCSD in a press statement claimed that the State Government under O. Ibobi Singh has been targeting and arresting innocent tribal civilians in an effort to “browbeat” the hill tribal into giving “obeisance” to the dictates of the dominant community.
The CJNCSD statement questioned as to whether every innocent civilian with a “hill tribal” identity automatically becomes a political “suspect” and whether every innocent tribal civilian with a tag of “Naga” identity becomes a prime “NSCN (I-M) suspect” in the eyes of the present ruling dispensation.
Alleging that a large number of innocent tribal civilians have been incarcerated in the state police lock-up under false and fabricated charges, the CJNCSD further categorized the continued incarceration of the United Naga Council (UNC) President Gaidon Kamei and Information Secretary Stephen Sangkhui as part of the same “dangerous political project”. “CJNCSD observes that the present Government has been constantly brutalizing the ethno-political culture of the multi-ethnic State for mere electoral mileage and regrets that no fairer sense of governance has ever struck the conscience of the ruling dispensation to win the hearts of the people,” the Delhi based Naga civil societies stated.
While batting for ushering in of normalcy within Manipur, the CJNCSD called for observing rules of democratic governance and respecting the people’s voice of the Nagas rather than pushing the situation into further chaos and uncertainty. It also reiterated the demand for immediate and unconditional release of all detained political prisoners affirming that this is the “necessary precondition” to solve the present political impasse.
