ANSAM denounces clampdown
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 13 2020: The All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM) has strongly denounced the Centre's renewed clampdown on Naga human rights activists, terming the deboarding of the secretary general of Naga Peoples' Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), Neingulo Krome, from a Kolkata-Bangkok flight on February 5 as an unjustifiable assault on the Naga civil societies as a whole.

A statement issued by the association today mentioned that it is deeply disturbed by the fact the Centre, in recent times, has been targeting innocent Naga civil community leaders and peace workers, implicating them in false criminal cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.This is part of a deeper political conspiracy to criminalise the Indo-Naga political issue, it alleged.

Further accusing the Indian Government of waging an undeclared war against the Nagas despite the presence of the political dialogue, ANSAM claimed that recently, the Indian armed forces have been forcibly entering Naga villages and setting up illegal camps inspite of objections from the locals.

Such renewed militarisation of the region is absolutely unjustifiable.

However this is far from surprising as India has a record of flouting both International human rights standard of behaviours and the established Constitutional norms of the land, ANSAM added.

Reminding the Centre of its obligation to the International law arising out of the Indo-Naga Framework Agreement, ANSAM demanded immediate withdrawal of all prohibitions and charges slapped against Naga civil society leaders, human rights activists, apart from demanding unconditional release of all detained political prisoners.

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