One more to the List
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: November 07 2012 -

found dead with gunshot wounds on his head by the roadside along National Highway 150 :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

In yet another glaring evidence of the ironic situation with which the people of this strife-torn state have been forced to live in, we learnt about a 'man', who was reported to have been picked up by suspected 'uniformed men' from his neighbourhood in Andro Khabam Leikai under Imphal East district on November 2 night, but found dead with holes on his head two days after and at a spot hundreds of miles away from where he had been picked up.

At the time of being taken away, the 'man' who was alleged to be a 'lieutenant' in People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed wing of the proscribed Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), was said to be wearing slipper but he was found with an oversize pair of new jungle boots on his feet.

The news of the killing came after the family members lodged a complaint with the local police who in turn conveyed that there was no official report of any arrest made on that particular day.

Yet, the local people had seen the 'man' being picked up by some Hindi-speaking 'uniformed men' two days earlier before his bullet-riddled body was found shot dead at a spot in between Lunghar and Phangrei in Ukhrul district.

Whether or not the 'man' in question was a 'lieutenant' in the armed wing of a proscribed UG group is of not much concern, but the manner in which the killing had been executed.

Interestingly, the incident has come to light on the same day when the Supreme Court of India rapped the Government of Manipur for the delay in filing its report on alleged extra-judicial killings in the State and Irom Chanu Sharmila completes her 12 years of fasting over the demand for removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, which gives sweeping power to armed security forces.

Declining to grant four weeks' time as sought by the Manipur government's counsel for responding to an earlier plea for a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into alleged large-scale extra-judicial killings of suspected militants in the state, a bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai retorted, "How do you expect us to give you four weeks' time?

We can't give you four weeks...Take this matter seriously. It is not a simple civil suit or a case of partition. Innocent people are dying out there. They are being killed. Start working on it in 24 hours. Do it quickly".

After hearing a PIL initiated by an association of the families of alleged victims of extra-judicial killings, the apex court had on October 1 last issued notices to the Centre, state government and the National Human Rights Commission for their response to the plea for an independent probe into around 1,500 such cases of extra-judicial killings by November 5.

But the delay over acting on the court notice has only lengthened the list of extrajudicial killing cases in the State.