Condemns May 16 killing of civilian in Longding
DIMAPUR, MAY 20 (MExN): The Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) on May 20 issued a press statement calling upon the Government of India to “listen to its conscience and refrain from continuing its military bloodbath”.
The NPMHR’s statement comes in the wake of the alleged killing of a civilian at Longding in Arunachal Pradesh on May 16 by personnel of the 19th Sikh Regiment.
Narrating the sequence of events that led to the killing, the NPMHR said that “even as the world, including the Nagas, continue to battle the Corona Virus Pandemic, the Government of India continues to wage war on innocent Naga civilians on one pretext or the other.”
The NPMHR said that it is fully aware that so many civil society organizations at the local levels as well as from the North Eastern region have condemned and sought for justice through various forms, including the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India.
However, it expressed pessimism with regard to receiving positive responses from government agencies and institutions such as the NHRC which it claimed, “continue to function only as an eye-wash to the misdeeds of the Indian army operating in North East India, Jammu and Kashmir and other trouble-torn regions in different parts of India and as a window dressing to shield the inhuman and gruesome acts of the Government of India through its military might.”
It reminded of when the National Human Rights Commission of India supported the upholding of the Armed Forces (Special Powers), Act – AFSPA, 1958, in the Supreme Court of India, during a hearing in July 1997, under Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights - Vs - Union of India under a Petition filed for the Repeal of AFSPA.
In this regard, NPMHR called upon the Indian Civil society Organizations, Democratic Rights institutions, People’s Movements as well as the international communities, United Nation’s agencies and others, “to take cognizance of the atrocities of the Government of India, who have denied even the basic ‘right to life’ of the Naga people, leave alone the recognition of our people hood.”
The NPMHR also called upon the Government of India to refrain from continuing its military bloodbath.
It also extended support and solidarity to the people of Kashmir, the political prisoners, migrant workers, farmers and all those affected by “anti-poor and anti-working class approach of the Government of India.”
