Imphal, August 08: Referring to the indications of Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee of not repealing Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 from Manipur, Manipur University Students' Union decried silence of the State legislators inspite of fully knowing the desire of the people to live a secured life.

The current agitation of the people of Manipur should in no way be interpreted as demonstrations to denounce extra-judicial killing of Thangjam Manorama Devi but is an outbursts of the deep rooted agony of the people who had faced several forms of security excesses, said MUSU.

Past records of custodial killing, rape of women and forced disappearance of State denizens like Bijoy Kumar, Sanamacha, pastor Jamkholet Khongsai, Rose, Bina, Sanajaobi, Marshi, Sangeeta etc had all taken place due to imposition of AFSPA in Manipur, highlighted the student body.

MUSU also added that there also various other women who could not come out in the open to protest security abuses due to societal implication and prolonging the draconian act could not rule out occurrence of similar case in the future if timely action is not initiated by both the Central and State Governments.

Flaying inaction of the State legislators MUSU asserted that time has come to choose whether to address the deeply wounded sentiment of the people or to continue to pursue appeasement policy to their New Delhi masters.

There is reason to be silent on the sensitive issue as it concerns the whole of North East region upon whom the Central Government has been for ages adopting discriminatory policy compared to other troubled State of the country like Jammu and Kashmir as well as during the tumultuous Punjab period, said the MUSU statement issued by its president Ashirjit Luwang.

The State legislators should stiffly oppose any move made by the Centre that is detrimental to the interests of the people with Options to resign from their respective post kept open whenever Centre take decisions against the will of the people of Manipur and the North East States in general, it said.

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