Mortal remains of 14 slain civilians laid to rest; Nagaland CM demands repeal of AFSPA

Our Reporter

Dimapur, Dec. 6 (EMN): The mortal remains of 14 civilians, who were killing by the Indian security forces on December 4 and the 5th in Nagaland’s Mon district, were laid to rest at the Helipad Ground in Mon on Monday.

The funeral service held in honour of the innocent civilians killed at Oting and Mon headquarters in the past two days was attended by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy CM Y Patton, NPF Legislature Party Leader TR Zeliang, Konyak legislators and ministers Metsubo Jamir, Neiba Kronu and S Pangnyu Phom.

Speaking at the funeral service, Rio expressed pain on the turn of events wherein many innocent lives were taken away. He said that he and his colleagues were there to mourn with the people of Mon and that the whole state is with the Konyaks.

“The 14 brothers who were killed on Dec. 4 and 5 died of no fault of theirs but have laid their lives for us. Dec. 4 and 5 will be a black day in the Naga history and their sacrifice will not be in vain. We will not forget them and through their sacrifice we will continue to work for the betterment of Nagaland and the Naga people,” he stated.

He said that the incident reminded him of the IRBs who laid their lives in Chhattisgarh.

The CM also announced that the state government would give an ex gratia of INR 5 lakh each to the victims’ families and the Centre too had announced INR 11 lakh and a government job to their kin. The Konyak Union, district administration and the elected leaders can pursue the paperworks without troubling the families, he said.

‘Repeal AFSPA from Nagaland’

Rio also demanded the government of India to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Nagaland. Maintaining that the Army shot on suspicion without enquiring the civilians, he said the government along with the civil society will pursue the Mon killing case. 

The AFSPA empowers the armed forces to violate human rights and India being the biggest democratic country should not impose the Act, the CM said while maintaining that the world also criticises the Act.

“AFSPA should be removed from Nagaland as the state has already attained 59 years (of statehood) and the ceasefire has passed 25 years. However AFSPA is not being removed because of the Naga political issue which is shrouded by the insurgency,” he said.

Every year Nagaland is tagged as a disturbed area but when the state is peaceful and under ceasefire, why should the state be declared as disturbed area? he wondered while asserting that the state government has been appealing to the Centre to remove the tag.

One weakness of the Nagas, he said, was the people being divided with multiple insurgency groups. Nagas should understand that AFSPA was imposed because of insurgency. If the insurgency continues the central government will continue to impose it, so we should ponder on how to remove this tag and the Act, he added.

Konyak legislators and representatives of ENPO, Konyak Union, KNSK, ENSF, KSU, Village Council of Oting, Jakphang and Chi also spoke at the funeral service.