Wokha, January 18 (MExN): Mekokla Baptist Church (MBC) today expressed sadness that the government authority concerned has not taken any action against those Assam Rifles troops who occupied the church on October 22, 2016. Despite condemnations by many organizations and memorandum submitted by the Mekokla Students’ Union (MSU) on behalf of the Mekokla people, the government has not taken any action, it lamented in a press release.
Stating that the issue is very serious and needs to be tackled seriously, MBC hoped that the Governor of Nagaland will deliver justice as per the memorandum submitted by the MSU “by using his good office in the interest of his people so that no unworthy circumstances like this is committed again by the armed forces in the near future and also to make sure that peaceful environment coexist between the Nagas and the security forces.” The Church also fully backed the memorandum submitted by the MSU to the Governor.
Meanwhile, the leaders of MBC in the release once again clarified that the church was “forcefully occupied” by the troops of 28th Assam Rifles without any permission on October 22, 2016 around 8:30 pm.
“The 28th AR has violated the verdicts of Supreme Court of India and protocols of the UN in regard to places of worship and educational institutions, where everyone knows that there are punishments to be given and actions to be taken against those defaulters who violate the verdicts and protocols,” MBC stated.
“This message is to all the Naga people that, from wherever it may be, occupying our Church forcefully on our soil is against our rights. Today it's in our village but tomorrow the same might happen in your village, therefore we all should stand together and fight for our right so that nothing of this is being committed again in any Naga soil,” it added.
The church further appealed to all the right thinking Naga people to stand with them today and “tomorrow we will be there in your needs.”
