Loha garam hai...(the iron is hot...)!
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 05, 2009 -

Loha garam hai...the iron is hot...! What more promptings do the people now need than to teach a lesson to the killers who come in the guise of the protectors of the public and assume the highly westernised nomenclature, police commandos ?

How about their mentors or chief patrons ?

On the other hand, why is the Chief Minister adopting the Ostrich in the sand posture, ever since Tehelka came out with the damning sequence of photographs ?

Other than the announcement that the Government has decided to institute a Magisterial inquiry (which is a joke in poor taste) to probe into the circumstances leading to the BT Road incident, that resulted in the death of a pregnant woman, Th Rabina and Ch Sanjit, the Government has been characteristically quiet.

Keeping quiet, that borders on the indifference, has been the hallmark of this Government, when it is faced with any damning proof or damaging evidences, but this selective silence cannot go on forever and it is here, where the people need to take their demands to the logical conclusion.

The 48 hour bandh and the series of pitched battles with the police cannot be the sole answer is a fact that should register in the minds of everyone. It is also time to tell everyone, especially the top brass of the police and the political leadership, that the people can no longer be taken as sacrificial lambs just to save their skins.

For too long, the police commandos have been allowed to act and function according to their fancies and whims that today they have become a centre of power in the police hierarchy.

This has to be corrected.

The fantastic yarn of a story that the State Police Department scripted and which was read out by the Chief Minister on the floor of the Assembly, detailing the BT Road incident on July 23, was nothing but another demonstration of how effectively it has mastered the art of lying and cheating the people.

And we all know the mentality and character of liars.

Now is the perfect time to fix responsibilities and make everyone accountable and the head roll should start from the very top. A recap of what actually happened or a reconstruction of the BT Road incident will leave everyone cold.

After the commandos failed to corner a man, they opened fire and in the process killed a young, pregnant woman. To cover this up, they found the perfect alibi, or so they thought, in Sanjit, a former cadre of the proscribed PLA.

As the sequence from Tehelka showed, Sanjit was frisked, surrounded by the commandos and cooly pushed inside a pharmacy and later shot dead.

New photographic evidences show that the shirt which Sanjit wore on that day had no bullet holes, which shows that he was shot straight on the stomach after the shirt was pulled up.

Simple logic tells us that this cannot happen if he had been killed in an encounter as the police so marvellously cooked up the shoot-out story.

With all these tell tale signs out in the open, what is the State Government looking for ? An inquiry may be needed for the records, but it should be an open and shut case.

The commandos who were directly involved in the murder, should be suspended, pending the inquiry and then promptly dismissed. Other punishment may be decided by the Court of law. This would be natural justice.

As for the people of Manipur, our stand is, strike while the iron is hot and put on the pressure so that the Chief Minister and his stooges in the Police Department are given the marching orders.