‘Legalisation of violence’ in Nagaland, alleges Yimchungrü Tribal Council
Morung Express News
Kohima | February 29
“We thought this won’t be a tribal conflict but an individual act. But when the dead bodies of the couple arrived, mob violence started. We could not stay any longer and by midnight we all left Kiphire with the help of IRB personnel. We left everything- our home, our clothes, our certificates, documents and money at Kiphire,” said Rose (all survivor names changed), a survivor of the recent mob violence at Kiphire in the aftermath of the killing of a couple.
Rose, a teacher currently displaced and living at a rented house in Kohima brought her four children to a press conference held at Hotel Granduer here today with Yimchungrü Tribal Council (YTC), and three other victims of February 29. So far, 219 households (including 8 houses burnt down) have been destroyed at Kiphire leaving over 1400 Yimchungrü people displaced.
Joseph, another survivor stated that his house was burnt on February 27. However what has hurt him most is the looting of their possessions by the mob and the failure of the State Government to pacify the situation for almost 20 days. Now displaced, “we have no place to reside in,” noted Joseph. “When our houses were burnt we were told that the Fire Brigade arrived only 30 minutes after the incident.” Following the violence at Kiphire, many people had to run away without carrying any of their possessions, some even ran barefoot.
Chuba, General Secretary of the YTC, while narrating the sequence of events that followed the killing of the couple, stated that on hearing the news the YTC had filed an FIR and condemned the killing. The GS also claimed that announcements were made on the day in Kiphire town through a PA system calling for men to “carry a weapon each and attack...”
“The same day, we even talked with some of the leaders of the community. We assured them that we are willing to cooperate and catch the culprits. But they could not control the mobs and even stopped picking up our calls while some phones were switched off. It was an organised mob,” he alleged.
“And in retaliation two houses were burnt in Shamator. However we were quick to pacify the situation. With timely intervention we were able to stop,” stated Akam, YTC Advisor, who also expressed the State Government’s partial treatment of the situation where it failed to pacify the mob violence at Kiphire.
However, he alleged, IRB personnel arrested “50 innocent protestors including students” at Shamator who were locked in a bus and assaulted. When a few hundreds approached the IRB to release the detained protestors, the IRB shot at the public where one person was seriously injured and is admitted at the ICU in Naga Hospital Authority Kohima.
The YTC stated that two suspects have been interrogated allegedly for the killing of the couple. However, it may be noted that the Nagaland Police have clarified that the suspects were picked up moving with arms and links to the said killing have not been established.
Further, the YTC informed that on February 21, a Yimchungrü GB’s house in Kiphire was also burned while on February 27, another person’s house was burnt. The mob violence in Kiphire did not subside despite the promulgation of 144 CrPC. The YTC questioned if anyone from the mob who ransacked and destroyed the houses has been arrested and punished under relevant laws.
The Nagaland State Government’s failure to accept a single demand of the eight-point charter of demands, submitted on February 18, after a peaceful procession in Dimapur, has further hurt the sentiments of the community. The demands included rehabilitation of the displaced people, enquiring the role of the State Government officers in Kiphire to be placed under the scanner of the Enquiry Commission etc.
YTC also expressed concern over the silence of ENPO and ENSF as well as other civil societies which have “not taken the situation seriously” leading to intensifying the violence. Failure of the State Government to address the violence is, according to YTC, “legalisation of violence.”
“We don’t accept violence. We want to maintain peace with our neighbours. But if violence has been legalised, we will also adopt violence and the Government will be responsible for it. In a lawless land we have to defend ourselves and we have to adopt tactics which may not be healthy,” asserted YTC.
