Mon, January 3 (MExN): Reacting to reports that the locals had refused to cooperate when the Army’s Court of Inquiry visited to Yatong (Ground Zero) at Oting on December 29, 2021 the Oting Students’ Union (OSU) issued a statement on Monday.
The OSU referred to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report on December 30, 2021 which stated that the “Locals refused to cooperate with the enquiry team.” Stating that the “totally fictitious” report “distorts the truth,” the OSU demanded that the new agency “must issue corrigendum on or before January 10, 2022” for its ‘malicious statement.’ In an event of any untoward situations, the concerned Press agency shall be held solely responsible, it added.
While the victim’s families were steadfastly aspiring for justice and equally placing all hope and faith upon the ongoing investigation into the Oting-Yatong massacre incident, the Oting citizens are shocked at being tagged as ‘non-cooperating’ with the Army’s Court of Enquiry (CoI), it maintained.
On the events leading up to the CoI’s visit, the OSU said that “no official intimation was made upon the office” except for the Mon Superintendent of Police who sought permission from the Konyak CSOs to allow the Army enquiry team to visit the site. Accordingly, the Konyak CSOs granted permission in spite of its “Non-cooperation” declaration against the Indian Military forces on December 7, in order to pave way for the Indian enquiry team to visit the site and to find the actual truth. It said that the Oting public had also complied with ‘utmost respect’ in spite of the hurt and pain that had been inflicted upon them.
However, it claimed that “the investigation team refused to talk/listen to other witnesses who were available at the Ground Zero,” and the “Indian Army enquiry team have only interacted and recorded the statement of Nyawang Konyak, BJP President Mon District and Lenwang Konyak CHM on December 29, 2021.”
Further, the OSU appealed the investigating team to interact and investigate the statements of the two survivors of the December 4 incident who have now been shifted back to Mon from Dibrugarh Medical College. It also asked the team to include statements of the ex- army man who was injured in the incident, doctors of the District Hospital Mon who conducted the post mortems, the District administration and law enforcing authority of the district as well as the Konyak CSOs, if required.
The OSU also requested the state government to look into the welfare of those who were injured in the incident and are likely to be in disabled state throughout their lives.
Meanwhile, the families of the 14 civilians who were killed in Oting conveyed condolences to the bereaved families of the 12 persons who were killed in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu & Kashmir. While doing so, the families also questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “adamant or reluctant in issuing a simple sympathy and condolence message when those 14 innocent Konyak youths were mercilessly massacred on December 4 and 5.”
“Aren’t we an Indian citizen in the eye of Narendra Modi? Few words of solace from the mouth of the Prime Minister would have comforted us a lot,” it added.
