Dimapur, June 15 (MExN): The Tikhir Tribal Council taking strong exception to the press statement of the Yimchunger Akhuru Arihako (YAA) and Yimchunger Tribal Council (YTC) published in a local daily on June 12 and 13 today said it is nothing but “fabricated news”. The Tikhir Council reacting to the news report of abduction of two officials of the Yimchunger Tribal Council belonging to Thonoknyu village, asserted that “Thonoknyu town and Thonoknyu village is inhabited only by the Tikhir and Khianmungan people”.
“There is no Yimchunger present either at Thonoknyu Town or in village. This can be clarified and proved from the neighbouring tribes and government officers stationed there at present and (also in) the past,” it asserted.
The YTC had earlier made charges that two of its officials were abducted by the “combined federal army and so called Limitsong group (terrorists)”. The Tikhir Council in a note appended by its president K Topan and jt. Secretary Mark Morekhu today condemned the statement of YTC and YAA “calling the Limitsong, a terrorist.”
“Limitsong”, the Tikhir Council said, “is a Tikhir Action Force meant solely for the protection and preservation of the Tikhir people and its identity”.
“It has no enmity with any neighbouring tribe, no hostility with any underground factions and it respect(s) the government agencies and its forces. Limitsong is entrusted with taking care of the Tikhir citizens, its identity and its jurisdiction. If any of her citizens go wrong/ do any anti tribe activities then they are corrected accordingly.”
The Tikhir Council instead charged the Yimchungers of carrying out terror activities. The Tikhir Council alleged three instances where it faced the brunt of Yimchunger terror. The Council alleged that in 1995, K Yanthong of Thonoknyu village and joint secretary of Tikhir Students’ Union and Khiuntsukiu of Anatongre village, a staff in the Supt. of Taxes office Kiphire were “pulled out from NST Bus and beheaded at Yakor village”. In another case in 1996, the TTC alleged, a “Yimchunger mob attacked and burned 11 (eleven) Tikhir villages”. “They did not spare even the Church - the Tikhir Baptist Shamator Town and New Anatongre Baptist Church was completely burned to ashes,” it asserted.Again in 2008, it alleged that on Christmas eve “the Yimchunger locked the Tikhir Baptist Church Shamator Town.”
The Tikhir Council further stated, “It is quite derogatory for the YTC to quote the ENPO resolution made on December 18 2007 declaring not to torture, kidnap or kill under the ENPO jurisdiction.”
The TTC maintained that the Yimchunger should have had been the first to face the stern action of ENPO. The Tikhir Council alleged that “in the middle of 2008, they (Yimchunger) kidnap Mr. Susang Tikhir, president Shamator Village Students’ Union at Shamator Town. He was tortured mercilessly for 3 (three) days and at gun point made to sign that he is becoming a Yimchunger.” (sic)
TTC also clarified that “the FGN has no role what so ever in the present episode.”It further accused the Yimchunger of a “self righteous” attitude and stated that the YAA claim was meant to “create confusion and to break peace and tranquility which prevail among us”.
