The Manipur Students’ Association Delhi joined othe organisations in strongly condemning the Saturday killing of civilians by the security forces during an operation conducted at Oting village under Mon district in Nagaland and demanded repeal of AFSPA in the region.
The Manipur Students’ Association Delhi (MSAD) stated in a release on Sunday that the massacre of innocent civilians by the Indian Armed Forces has opened the wounds of the Nagas again. The 13 Naga coal miners, mercilessly shot dead by the Indian armed forces, were daily bread earners and such act of barbarity by the Indian armed forces shows their nature of operation in the Northeast, it stated.
For more than 70 years, the Indian military’s presence in the region has become a catalyst in suppressing the political and historical aspirations of the Nagas in particular and the entire north-eastern region in general, it mentioned.
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Its presence in the region has brought pain and suffering to the people, and MSAD took yesterday’s brutal act as a continued practice of inflicting pain and grief to the entire people, it stated.
Although the agreement of “cease fire” with the Naga armed insurgent political groups has been there since 1997, India still fails to repeal AFSPA, it stated.
“Under the curtain of AFSPA, the Indian armed forces exercise the killings of innocent civilians and rape of our sisters and mothers. The unwillingness to bring peace in the region only exposes India’s lack of political will to address the Naga’s historical demand for right to self-determination,” it mentioned.
MSAD also shares the grief of the bereaved families,and extends heartfelt solidarity to peoples’ demand for justice and freedom, it added.
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