It was on 27th December 2013 that 6 innocent Rengmas, including 5 women were mercilessly butchered by KPLT militants and Karbi villagers alike with a view to finish off Rengma Nagas in Assam. The carnage was a conspiracy of the highest order which the Rengmas of Karbi Anglong, Assam, still remembers vividly. The Rengma Naga Peoples Council (RNPC), Assam, would like to take this time to remind the Government of Assam that lives of innocent people matters. However, instead of learning from past mistakes, the Assam Government and police both have most callously allowed lapses to occur again resulting in massacre of innocent Adivasis in Bodoland Territorial Council.
Prior to 27th Dec 2013 carnage, the Rengma villagers complained to the police that KPLT and Karbi villagers were planning to strike Rengmas but the complaint was contemptuously discarded. Later on, Rengma villages were burnt, people killed and whole Rengma population was displaced as refugees over a period of two to three days. Even in the midst of burning and killing of villagers, the Assam police and security forces stood as silent spectators refusing to tackle the Karbi militants and mobs. This was a conspiracy and sheer cowardice on the part of Assam police and KAAC.
Therefore, it is most condemnable that the Assam police, instead of acting on central intelligence input that songbijit faction of NDFB were planning to kill Adivasis, allowed lapses to occur citing the lame excuse of inaccessible terrain, thereby allowing the merciless butchering of innocent Adivasis including women and children.
The prompt measure taken by the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh to bring normalcy in the state is indeed laudable.
The RNPC has declared 27th December as Rengma Black Day in memory of those innocent Rengmas killed by KPLT on 27th December 2013.
Solomon Rengma
General Secretary, RNPC
26th December 2014
