ANSAM demands apology
Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 14
Even as Imphal-based civil bodies rallied around a “common future” and “unity” earlier this month, Manipur Police Commandos in Imphal have shown a complete departure from the stand.
A team of Manipur Police Commandos roughed up Naga students’ activists on the morning of February 14, intimidating them, threatening them with physical assault and verbally abusing them for travelling through Imphal.
At 6:30am on Sunday, executive members of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), Boveio Poukai Duo, General Secretary, Imtiyapang, Secretary for Education and Lerimo Kikon, Secretary for Games & Sports, reached Imphal.
They were travelling to Ukhrul from Kohima via Senapati for the Lui-Ngai-Ni festival being held at Ukhrul when 5-6 Manipur Police Commandos (MPCs) stopped them at Mantripukhri. It was informed that the MPCs was led by an SI in a white gypsy bearing registration MN 01K 0350.
“There were few vehicles so early in the morning but they probably stopped our car as we had an NL registration number plate,” said Poukai speaking to The Morung Express.
In the last one year, harassment of vehicles or people travelling on Nagaland (NL) registered vehicles by the security forces in Imphal have increased considerably.
The MPCs insisted on speaking to them in Manipuri/Meiteilon. “They began to yell orders at us in Manipuri, which most of us don’t even speak or understand. Pointing guns at us, they asked us to freeze with our hands up and get off for a security check,” informed the NSF General Secretary, who has partial knowledge of Manipuri. The students’ activists requested them to speak in English but to no avail.
“You Naga people.. you create problems. This is Imphal, not the hills..,” the officer in charge began to bark at the team. When the NSF team clarified that they were on an official visit to Manipur, they began to be physically handled. “This is Manipur and no one knows you are here, the officer told me. He began to drag me towards their vehicle, said he’ll show me what physical violence means and that we will be taught a lesson,” said Poukai. “Why are you going through Imphal, is what the officer wanted to know. How am I supposed to take the downtrodden roads through the hills in my small car?” he wondered.
This is when a reinforcement truck of the MPCs also arrived on the spot, forcing the NSF team to get into the vehicle again. “They stopped only when we said that there are people in both Senapati and Ukhrul who are waiting for us, including UNC and ANSAM, and disappearing us would only create bigger problems. Besides, it had been an hour and a half since we were detained and a civilian crowd had gathered in the area,” the General Secretary described. It later turned out that the officer spoke and understood English clearly.
Meanwhile, the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) has demanded an apology from the authorities responsible for the harassment and an assurance that “they will discipline their personnel to respect citizen and Human Rights.”
“Not only were they checked, frisked and their mobile phones seized but they were abused and provoked in a very communal tone,” noted the ANSAM in a press release from its Information & Publicity Secretary, James Inka.
“The Tribals have been experiencing such violence and brutalities regularly and ANSAM is not surprised but we would like to question as to why civil police commit and perpetrates such violent and communal harassment against civilians,” it noted.
