Condoning worse than committing crime
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 03, 2023 -

WOE to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! - Isaiah 5:20 ESV


In a development that has been hailed as breakthrough by media outlets, four people have been arrested and two others detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the murder of two students, a 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old boy, belonging to Meitei/Meetei community by armed Kuki militants in captivity.

The fate of the two students, who went missing since July 6 last, remained unknown until some photographs surfaced on social media last week within days of restoring the mobile internet service that remined shut down following the outbreak of violent clashes between the Meetei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities on May 3 last.

In one of the photos, which went viral on social media the two missing students were seen sitting on the ground in fear with armed men in the background while another photo shows their lifeless bodies slumped beside a boulder, thus confirming the worst fear of their families, who had been running from pillar to post to save their kids without much success.

Sensing the anger of the people, the Chief Minister's Secretariat quickly came out with a statement urging the people to exercise restraint and let the authorities to handle the investigation of the case.

With tension running high after many angry students, who came out on the streets demanding justice, suffered injuries in crackdown by security personnel, Union Home Minister Amit Shah promptly despatched a team of CBI officials led by Special Director Ajay Bhatnagar on September 27 to investigate the case.

The CBI team managed to arrest four people, two men and two women, and detained others, who are said to be minors, for their alleged involvement in the gruesome murder.

However, the bodies of the two students are yet to be recovered and handed over to their respective families for performing the last rites.

Unfortunately, this swift arrest of the people involved in the murder of two missing students has not gone, down well with the people of Kuki-Chin community.

Apart from taking out a protest march against the prompt action of roping in the service of CBI for the investigation earlier, Kuki-Chin community has described the arrest of the accused as "abduction of innocent civilians" and voiced their frustration over what they described as the "selective targeting of Kuki-Zomi-Mizo people in the investigation even by the central agencies".

While there may be some truth in their contention that CBI has given precedence to the murder of two students over the case of naked parade of two women that took place on May 4, a day after the outbreak of the current violent in Churachandpur district but came to light only on July 21, the allegation that none from the Meitei/Meetei community who were involved in the incident have been arrested so far is a blatant lie, just like many such lies they have been spinning.

Without even waiting for the law enforcement agencies to step in, Meitei people themselves meted out punishment to the culprits when the viral video came out.

Along with condemning the incident, houses of some of the main accused had also been vandalised by the angry people.

However, none from Kuki-Chin community or their organisations, which are crying hoarse against violation of human rights, have expressed condemnation as if they are condoning the gruesome killing of the two missing students in the captivity of armed Kuki militants, who they termed as innocent civilians.

It is a fact that many horrible crimes have been committed against each other in the five-month long violent conflict between the Meitei/ Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities.

All these crimes should be treated as nothing but crimes regardless of who committed and on whom, and no attempt should be made to shield the culprits.

Let's remember, there is nothing patriotic in condoning crimes.