TSA calls for 36-hour bandh starting Jan. 16 in Manipur

Blockade to be enforced along interstate highways

Dimapur, Jan. 11 (EMN): The Thadou Students’ Association (TSA) has called for a 36-hour bandh starting from 6:00 am of Jan. 16 and till 6:00 pm of Jan. 17. This was informed in a press release issued by the TSA.
The bandh is said to have been called over the government’s failure to deliver justice in several cases of murder and rape. The press release listed the cases: ‘The 5th May 2017 Sugnu double murder case, the brutal murder of Mr Thongkhogin Haokip, an Assistant Teacher at Molnom Junior High School, Tengnoupal district, on February 29, 2016, and the non-introduction of Thadou Kuki (MIL) subjects at Higher Secondary Schools in the valley. 21-year-old private school teacher Miss Nengkhokim Haokip alias Cicilia/Shila from Moltinchan village in Chandel district was allegedly gang-raped and brutally murdered and her dead body found near Sugnu. Mr Kaikholen Tuboi was also found brutally murdered.’
A team of TSA is said to have met with Kakching police officers in this regard. On Dec. 22 2017 the TSA served an ultimatum to the Home department to deliver justice on or before January 10 2018 ‘but no satisfactory action has been taken up to date,’ the updates informed. ‘Had the government been really serious about such a heinous crime and fulfilling the memorandum of understanding it reached with the JAC on May 6, the culprits would have been arrested long time back and justice already delivered,’ the release added.
In regard to the introduction of Thadou-Kuki (MIL) subject in the higher secondary schools in the valley, the press release stated, the government has in 2016 already issued an order for its introduction but the order remains merely on paper; it has not been implemented till now.
Hence the TSA considered this a deprivation of the rights of Thadou tribal students to avail language privileges.
The bandh will be enforced on Imphal-Moreh, Imphal-Dimapur, Imphal-Jiribam and Imphal-Churachandpur roads, it was informed.
‘If the government fails to fulfil our demand in public interest, TSA will launch further course of agitation until the demands are fulfilled,’ the organisation stated.