DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 13 (MExN): Taking suo moto cognizance and subsequent verification on the case of a newlywed couple posing with arms which was widely circulated on social media, the Dimapur Police on November 13 arrested two individuals belonging to the GPRN/NSCN for allowing unauthorized display of firearms in contravention to ceasefire ground rules.
A press statement issued by the Addl. Dy. Commissioner of Police/PRO of Dimapur on Wednesday informed that the two arrested were identified as Ato Sumi, aged 23, and Mughaho, aged 28 years.
Further, the married couple whose photos and video with assault rifles taken on their wedding reception went viral on social media was also arrested but later released on police bail bond, the press statement said.
In another separate case, a senior functionary belonging to a Naga political group identified as Motsuthung Ngullie was arrested by Dimapur police on November 11 for unauthorised use and discharge of firearms in the public area. Further, one .32 pistol with 4 (four) live rounds was also seized from his possession.
Enough of witch-hunt
on wedding photo: GPRN/NSCN
Meanwhile, the GPRN/NSCN has termed the news reporting over the photo of the newlywed couple posing with arms as a witch hunt with the social media in Nagaland, print and electronic media in India taking the news reporting to a new high or rather low.”
In a press statement, MIP GPRN/NSCN said the “groom whose father is a respected Naga leader, holding a red category identity card (with entitlement of two weapons for personal safety), on his wedding day, after all the guests had left, overcame by boyhood emotion and thrill of wanting to hold a real weapon on his most significant day, requested his father's security guards to let him and his bride click photos with permitted weapons.”
However, a witch hunt has been set into motion after the photos which were taken in a private space with few family members around was forward to WhatsApp, it lamented.
The GPRN/NSCN said in the next few days it can also produce thousands of pictures of non-national workers Nagas, ranging from ten years to seventy years both men and women, who have proudly posed with exact or more lethal weapons than the ones used by the bride and the groom.
Will the authorities go after everyone who have posed with weapons and prosecute them in equal manner, book them and seize the weapons? it questioned.
Pointing out that none of these men and women intended or intend to unleash terror in Nagaland or elsewhere, the GPRN/NSCN said the law should not demonise and brand spontaneous wedding photos, admittedly an error of judgment, as terrorist acts.
Also admitting that guns and Nagas have been synonymous for seven decades, the GPRN/NSCN said it is exactly for this reason that Government of India and Nagas are trying to find a solution to Indo-Naga political problem.
“Gun culture became necessary because Nagas had to defend their land against forceful occupation. Spear, machetes were our early weapons and our culture but Nagas had to upgrade themselves to arms because primitive weapons could not help us defend our land,” it maintained.
While stating that gun culture must end just as the Governor has pointed out that it is unacceptable, the GPRN/NSCN believed that honorable and acceptable political solution to Indo-Naga political problem will certainly end gun culture the moment long awaited solution is arrived.
