Liangmai bodies condemn unprovoked firing
Source: Chronicle News Service / Newmai News Network
Imphal, May 28 2023:
Namdilong Naga Village Author-ity (NNVA) has expressed deep concern and resentment against the "unprovoked firing incident" on Saturday night in and around Namdilong in Kanglatongbi area by unidentified gunmen.
The VA said that the distress caused upon the villagers was exacerbated by the fact that children, women and aged citizens are frightened by such unprecedented and unprovoked firing carried out in the middle of the village.
The Authority also stated that such in-cidents may lead to unfortunate episodes of harming the innocent and "neutral" civilians.
The villagers have been giving free passages to all irrespective of the community they belong to and reaching out to every distressed call on humanitarian ground maintaining "our neutrality" .
However, no community should take this for granted and view the village to be weak and susceptible.
The villagers will not allow anybody to use its area as a battlefield, it added.
The villagers also condemned such frequent violence and brandishing of weapons in the strongest terms.
"No individual or group should attempt to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the village.
The villagers will not remain a mute spectator if any harm is inflicted upon the community and causes damage to their properties," NNVA cautioned.
Liangmai Naga Council (LNC) also con-demned the firing incident of Saturday night in Kanglatongbi-Liangmai area.
In a statement, LNC conveyed that Liang-mai people are peace loving and have kept away from all forms of violence.
However, the community is greatly perturbed by the deliberate violation of peace and tranquil-lity at Namdilong Kanglatongbi due to the unprovoked firing on Saturday night.
LNC termed as uncalled for and unfor-tunate that the village has been used as a battleground for violence between con-flicting groups.
"The Liangmai people have been giving free passages to every commuter irrespective of their background.
However, to our great disappointment, our Good Samaritan act is seen as an act of weakness by a certain conflicting community, and is taking un-due advantage over our silence and good nature," it said.
LNC also conveyed that it is extremely disturbed that commuters along the Lei-makhong-Konsakhul IVR are often stopped, checked and frisked, causing inconvenience to our commuters, while adding that similar incidents are happening along the IT Road.
LNC further asked the particular conflict-ing community "if this is what you would pay us back for our sympathy, and treating you as Good Samaritans?" The Liangmai body cautioned that if such "barbaric acts" continue to occur in the fu-ture the Liangmai people will be compelled to stop giving free passage to anyone passing by "our villages" .
"No communities should take undue ad-vantage of our peace loving nature.
If any community tries to test our peaceful nature with their barbaric nature then the Liangmai people will not remain a silent spectator.
We expect good will from you as we have treated you well in your hard times.
Such an act of using our ancestral land to be a battleground, stopping peaceful commuters on the way, checking and frisking for no reason should be stopped henceforth," it stressed.
The Liangmai body further urged the "warring groups" to shun the path of vio-lence and take up peace, and also appealed to the authorities concerned, both the centre and the state to restore immediate peace in the state.