Kaito convenes high level meeting today
Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, APRIL 30
THE long running inter-state border dispute between Nagaland and Assam took a turn down the bloody path on Wednesday when Assam police opened fire on some Naga villagers clearing jungle at the disputed belt near Indisen village, and killed one of them in the process. Eyewitness accounts suggested that around 30-40 Assam police personnel from Sankartilla police outpost had descended on four Nagas clearing the jungle on Wednesday at around 8.30 am.
Those who managed to escape unhurt told newsmen that they had gone early in the morning to clear the jungle, some 1.5 kms away from Indisen village and hardly a half kilometer from Sankartilla police outpost.
The victim, 38-year-old Supongtemjen Longkumer, was hit by one of the bullets which led to his capture at the hands of Assam police. According to one of the escapees, Noklenungsang, the victim was tortured to death.
He recounted that they had tracked the Assam police all the way back to their outpost, and claimed that the victim was never taken there.
The body was discovered in the jungle by a search party from Indisen village at round 10 am. The villagers said that it had torture marks all over the body and a bullet wound in the back.
Dimapur police confirmed that “a bullet head was retrieved from the dead body during post mortem examination.” A statement from PRO of Dimapur police said that the victim bore a single bullet injury in the lower back region and several inflicted bruise and injury marks on the body.
The Home Minister of Nagaland, G Kaito Aye, when Eastern Mirror contacted him, declined to make any immediate comment on Wednesday’s incident. He however informed that he has called for a meeting tomorrow to discuss the latest turn of event in the Nagaland-Assam border hostility.
Wednesday’s incident is the seventh instance since March 21 last, in which Assam police have been engaged at firing on Naga villagers.
Meanwhile, the United Naga Tribes Association (UNTA) has condemned “the brutal murder of Supongtemjen Longkumer of Chuchuyimlang village by Assam Police on April 30 at Assam-Nagaland border area.”
“The UNTA is anguished by the barbaric act of the armed Assam Police for taking laws in their hand to kill innocent Naga people without any rhyme and reason,” a press statement read.
It called for an investigation into the killing as well as the “random firing” by Assam police in the recent months. The UNTA also urged the Nagaland government “to provide proper security to the people living along the border area.”
