Morung Express News
DIMAPUR OCT 20: Two Naga youths from Lumbung village in Chandel District, Manipur were brutally assaulted and tortured by the Meira Paibis, a frontline Meitei women organization, Manipur Police Commandos and Meitei youth in Chandel District at around 7: 00 pm on October 18.
According to latest information, SR Wangring, aged 35, and WS Minal, 36 and a Village Authority member, were returning to Chandel from Imphal after purchasing a new motorbike when they were stopped by a group of vigilantes belonging to the Meira Paibis. The women then took them to a local clubhouse and started assaulting the two when it was confirmed that both were Nagas. (Witnesses added that the women had earlier sounded alarm by beating on electric posts as a signal for other people to gather ‘to attack.’)They were then thoroughly searched and their belongings including SBI bank Account books, Rs 800 in cash, wrist watches, documents etc were taken away while the motorbike was burnt.
The two were assaulted with iron rods, knives and sticks after which a dispatch of Manipur Police Commandos arrived on the scene. According to accounts the Police commandos fired in the air to disperse the crowd and later took the two near-dead persons to a lock-up where they were blind-folded and tortured again. Following the torture they were left blind-folded and left in a cell without food or water for a couple of days. The two persons are presently admitted at a private nursing home at Kalibari, Dimapur, with severe injuries ranging from head fractures, fractured limps and cuts from knives.
President of the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM) Paul Langhu assuring action said “We will not tolerate and definitely there will be an appropriate response from us” Langhu told The Morung Express. He said that this was not the first time Nagas have been targeted by the Meiteis and that student units have been informed of the developments for further course of action adding that the NPMHR and the Naga Students Federation (NSF) have already been informed.
Co-Convener, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (South) Sng. Phamhring, told this paper that there will be no compromise. He informed that on October 19 a meeting of Naga social organizations in Manipur encompassing students, women, youths and village organizations was held where a Joint Action Committee was instituted to pursue the case. To this effect a resolution was passed that action be taken on the perpetrators within 5 days after which any course of action would be resorted to by the Nagas in Manipur.
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