Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, FEBRUARY 14
A three-member delegation of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) who were on their way to attend the Lui Ngai Ni Festival at Ukhrul were allegedly stopped and abused on Sunday morning by a squad of Manipur police commando at Mantripukhri in Manipur.
When contacted, the NSF executives confirmed the incident. One of the Federation delegates narrated that the incident happened at around 6.30 am when they were stopped en-route to Ukhrul by the commandos. He said they were asked to step out of their vehicle and were questioned and frisked, and when the team explained that they were an official team of the NSF who are to attend a festival in Ukhrul, the commando personnel started to verbally abuse and threaten them without any provocation. Their mobile phones were reportedly snatched and they were also allegedly dragged and shoved. The NSF official informed that when they tried to reason with the personnel, they (the personnel) seemed to get affronted and even called for reinforcement, which shortly arrived in a mini pick-up. The NSF team were said to have been detained for about one and a half hour when some senior student activists happened to pass by and intervened, and finally managed to convince the personnel to allow the team to go.
One of the members who was present at the incident said they were abused in communal lines, they had fingers poked in their faces literally and were dragged and shoved, however they were alright and they have decided not to lodge any complaint.
Meanwhile, the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) has expressed serious concern at the harassment meted out to Naga Students’ Federation team by Manipur police commandos.
The ANSAM demanded apology from the responsible authorities and that they discipline their personnel to respect citizens and human rights.
“Not only were they checked, frisked and seized mobile phone but abused and provoked in a very communal tone to the extent they were told ‘This is Imphal, not the Hills and that the Nagas are a problem”. They also questioned, “Why they took the Imphal road to reach Ukhrul? They were dragged saying “they will be taught a lesson”.
ANSAM suspected that Manipur police commandos had the motive to physically make them disappear as they had already called for a truck and reinforcement to take them away had it not been for the passersby who started gathering,
“The tribals have been experiencing such violence and brutalities regularly and ANSAM is not surprised but we would like to question as to why civil police commit and perpetrate such violent and communal harassment against civilians.
