The Rongmei Naga Students’ Organization, Manipur (RNSOM) and the Rongmei Naga Youth Organization, Manipur (RNYOM) have conveyed their gratitude to the Chief Minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh and Chairman of Hills Areas Committee, Dinganglung Gangmei and the Manipur police “for their prompt response and intervention into the brutal physical assault of Joshua Kamei, a driver of the NF Railway Construction by some valley based militants who abducted him at about 12 noon of November 5, 2024 from the village gate of Keikhu Kabui Khul in Imphal East”. As such, the two organisations have decided to keep in abeyance regarding their proposed agitation.
The joint statement said, “It is learnt that, on the strong instruction of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, a team of Manipur police was able to apprehend the cadres of the valley based proscribed SOREPA, which is reported to be the splinter group of KYKL as per the police sources”.
They have been apprehended from their hideout where some arms and ammunition and four (4) cadres of the proscribed group are reported to be in the custody of Manipur police, Imphal East, the statement also said. It is also learnt from reliable sources that the Arambai Tengol (AT) was not involved in the “brutal assault” and abduction of Joshua Kamei, the joint statement of the two Rongmei organisations clarified.
These two organizations also extended their appreciation to those like-minded civil society organizations, particularly Naga People’s Organization (NPO), Senapati District Students’ Association (SDSA) and Senapati District Women’s Association (SDWA) for extending solidarity in times of “our needs and difficult moments like this”.
The statement added, “We also would like to assure our Naga brothers and sisters from other districts that Rongmei Naga youth and student organisations will always extend our solidarity and help in times of trouble and difficult situations being faced by our fellow Naga brothers and sisters from different districts of south Nagalim”.
Further, the two organisations informed all the concerned authorities, general public both valley and hills “that in a plural society like Manipur, hegemony of a dominant group of community should not be imposed upon other minority ethnic tribal groups particularly the Nagas because the Nagas have decided and have been maintaining the neutrality in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the two communities”.
The statement then said that the Nagas “will no longer remain silent spectators to atrocities, abductions, attacks, hijacking of vehicles and looting hard earned money of those poor Naga villagers coming down to Manipur valley”.
The two organisations had already spelled out their lines of actions to be taken up in case there is no positive response from the government, law enforcing agencies and all authorities concerned.
“However, we will wait and watch for the next course of action because we will not be satisfied and remain silent when only four culprits involved in the case being apprehended by the Manipur police, and until justice is delivered to the victim concerned by initiating punitive action to those entire culprits according to the law”, the statement further said. Deserving medical treatment for the victim should also be borne by the government and the culprit party, it added.
