TSA demands justice for Semkhongam
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, May 22 2015 :
Thadou Students' Association - General Headquarters (TSA - GHQ) has submitted a memorandum to Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju seeking justice for Semkhongam Haokip, lynched in mob violence and brutal assault on three others.
The memorandum to Rijiju said TSA which is representing Thadou tribe of Manipur, expresses serious concerns over the current issue which is a communal-like retaliation of the killing of two persons from the valley.
"We vehemently condemn the May 14, 2015 incident wherein innocent Semkhongam Haokip, a truck driver, was lynched by a mob that also brutally assaulted two other occupants of the truck in Patsoi area in Imphal West district and the burning down of the vehicle.
It said the incident is believed to be a retaliatory attack following the murder of two valley men at Thingsat village in Manipur's Sadar Hills on the May 10, 2015 by a SoO signatory group Kuki Revolutionary Front (KRF) which claimed that it was an unintentional killing during an interrogation and that the duo were cadres of valley-based militant group Kangleipak Communist Party (Nando).
"We also condemn the torching of a Church by the mob in Patsoi area where one of the persons killed by KRF cadres belonged.
The killing of individuals from a particular community by another individual from another community should not be communalised.
The truth is that neither Christianity nor the church condones killing; moreover, the killing in the hill had nothing to do with the Patsoi church or its members in the valley," it said.
It said, "In a swift response to Thingsat incident, the State security forces launched a search operation in Thingsat area on May 13, 2015 and arrested a number of KRF cadres, suspected to be involved in the murder of the two valley men.
While this is a laudable action on the part of the State Government, its failure to arrest or make attempts to arrest the culprits in the lynching of Semkhongam places the State administration in a lamentable state and raises a serious concern" .
It is regrettable that the reaction to the Thingsat killing had blown out of proportion, with some people in the valley with vested interest taking the law into their own hands and killing an innocent tribal man and physically assaulting three others who all had nothing to do with the incident, the memorandum to Rijiju added.
It added that given that the suspected culprits in the Thingsat killing had been arrested and detained in police custody, the law should have been allowed to take its course of action without communalising the issue.
"If mob justice is justified then democracy and society itself are already in grave danger" .
TSA alleged that there have been allegations that the security personnel placed on duty at Patsoi on the day turned a blind eye to, if not conniving with, the mob lynching and letting the persons involved in the mob lynching go scot free.
The student body said that the KRF cadres' action in no way finds any justification, however it also needs to be pointed out that the Government has failed to control activities of Suspension of Operation (SoO) signatory groups.
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