Nagaland killings: Her husband left home to earn money for Christmas shopping never to return

Our Correspondent
Mon, Dec. 11 (EMN): The Oting incident may have happened a week ago but there are many more heart-wrenching stories that simply can’t be left untold; of shattered dreams, pain and despair that many have to face for no fault of theirs.

Limei Konyak’s husband Khawang Konyak, 21, left for the coal mine site in Tiru on December 1 to earn some money for the festival season. She was told that he would return home on December 4 but he never returned.

He was killed by the security forces on December 4 evening while returning home along with eight others in a pick-up truck.

Khawang is survived by his wife Limei, 4-month-old son, parents, two younger brothers, and grandmother.

“He told me that he would earn some money, so that he could take me for Christmas shopping,” Limei (20) recalled.

That was Khawang’s first venture in coal mining work and it turned out to be his last.

On that fateful day, December 4, Limei had prepared food for dinner and was waiting for her husband to return. But he did not come home even after she finished dinner. Then at around 10 pm, she received the news about the killing incident.

Her whole world came crashing down.

“For what reasons did the army killed my husband. Who will look after me and my son now?” asked the young mother.

“He loved me and my son so much,” she said.

She wants her husband back and nothing else.

‘I could not even have a last look of my son’

Hingchk Konyak, 40, mother of Khawang, also wants her son back, “right now”.

“Who will look after his wife and child? He would have been elated to see and hold his son if he was alive. Now he is no more. What should we do now?” she asked.

‘His son is just four months old. He will need home, shelter, clothe, food to eat, etc. Who will take care of all these now?’ she said, while adding that even his two younger brothers are too young to look after the family.

‘He was neither a thief nor an underground. He never retaliated against anyone. He was just working hard to earn a livelihood for the family,’ she said.

“Where do we search for him? Where is my son? Who killed my son and why?” asked the mother.

She didn’t even get the chance to have a last glimpse of her son, as his mortal remains were laid to rest at the helipad ground in Mon district headquarters, which is about four hours drive from Oting village.

“His dead body was not brought home. I could not even have a last look of my son or say my last word,” the heartbroken mother shared.