I still wait everyday for my son to return, says mother of Oting victim

Our Correspondent
Oting, Nov. 28 (EMN): The world may have moved on after the tragic Oting incident that happened almost a year ago, killing 14 civilians — 13 in a botched ambush by the 21 Para Special Forces and one in its aftermath in Mon district — but not for the family of the victims.

An ambush launched by the 21 Para Special Forces killed six coal miners while they were returning from Lower Tiru in a bolero pick up at Yatong-Langkhao area under Oting village in Mon district on December 4. The incident led to the killing of seven more civilians and an Army personnel following a scuffle between the villagers and the paramilitary forces the same day.

Neingam Konyak, mother of Hokup (37), who was among the 13 civilians killed nine days after his wedding, shared that she still cannot accept the death of her son.

When Eastern Mirror met with Konyak on Sunday (November 27), the anguished mother, 66, said, ‘I still don’t believe that my son is dead and wait everyday for him to return. I never thought he died. Whenever you all (visitors from outside the village) come to meet me, I always think Hokup will also come,’ she said.

On Hokup’s first wedding anniversary (November 25, 2022), his mother placed a brand new grey t-shirt on his grave, lying between two other victims — Phaokam and Yenjong Konyak — at the common graveyard in the village.

She recalled buying attires for Hokup since he was a child, and continued to do so even after his death. However, she feared the injury on her left hand (now under compression bandage) might prevent her from doing much for her late son.

‘I told him not to go to Tiru that time but he said he will go down once and come back. But, he never returned home after that,’ Konyak recounted.

On the fateful night of December 4, she learned news of the twins (Thapwang and Langwang) and others being killed. It was only the following day that she came to know that her son too was killed, when she woke up to a gathering of people at her place.

In desperation, she even went to seek prayers from an intercessor about her late son and she was told that Hokup was ‘still beside her’.

‘I don’t know what to say and what to do to the Army as I can’t even speak properly. I cannot do anything and don’t know anything,’ she said.

‘If I were a man, I can kill them with my bare hands but I am a woman and old, what can I do?’ she added.

Recounting memories of her late son, she shared that she struggled to bring him up as providing him education was difficult due to financial constraints. He had to drop out of school in Class 10 as no one was there to extend financial help, she said.

She had four sons including Hokup, the youngest among the siblings.

It was Hokup who looked after her mother when he was alive as the brothers reside outside of Oting. She is now looked after by her eldest son’s family.

“I cry everyday after his (Hokup) death,” said the grieving mother.