Morung Express News
Kohima | January 7
Secretary General of the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), Neingulo Krome was today stopped by immigration officials from boarding his flight while travelling to Bangkok from the Kolkata Airport.
Speaking to The Morung Express over the phone, Krome said that he was travelling to Bangkok for a meeting when he was stopped by two immigration officials.
“They cleared my passport. But all of a sudden, the two officials came and told me to wait in a corner. I waited for quite some time. Then they came and informed me that they had received instruction to cancel my travel. They escorted me outside,” said Krome.
The two officials did not take him to the usual exit route, but took him two floors downstairs in the basement, assuring him that a taxi will be arranged. However, no taxi was arranged, and Krome had to seek help from other airport officials who finally arranged a taxi.
“I had already received my boarding pass, and cleared my passport but before I could reach the immigration, they stopped me which means somebody must have been watching me,” said Krome.
Krome expressed shock over the incident which he termed 'unexpected' as the immigration had cancelled his flight for the first time.
Activists flay incident
Following the incident, a joint press statement released by 167 academics and activists condemned the incident and termed it as an “insult to dignity and denial of travel rights for the NPMHR leader.”
It said that Krome “is an important and committed human rights defender from the region and he leads one of the most respected Human Rights organisations, world over,” and one of India’s oldest.
“We are concerned that it is also in many ways an open attack on the Naga people’s rights, amidst a 23 year old peace process and ceasefire,” it said, adding it is also yet another sign of “GoI’s disrespect towards and backtracking from the ceasefire and the framework agreement.”
The de-boarding, according to the statement, “is preceded by several cases that Government agencies have been slapping on Naga people.”
“We condemn this act of the Government and demand that he be allowed to travel. We also demand that the Government respect the spirit and letter of the peace process and desist from the witch-hunt against Naga people and their leaders,” the statement added.
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