The All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has express its shock and said it is “deeply anguished at the painful death of one Mangboilal Lhouvum, a resident of Chalwa village at the hands of 44 Assam Rifles (AR) posted at Gelnel Village under Kangpokpi district”. The apex tribal student body of Manipur alleged in a press statement that the incident happened on the night of June 4, 2021, at Chalwa village where the deceased Mangboilal, a father of four children and a “daily wage labourer was shot at the abdomen without any reason and rhyme by Major Alok Sathe, commanding officer of E Company 44 AR Banglabung outpost”.
As a matter of fact, said the ATSUM statement, such “senseless act of killing at will professed by the Major is non-justifiable and is distorting the very fact that peace and harmony can prevail in a land where the Assam Rifles claims to be the ‘Friends of the Hills People’ or the ‘Sentinels of the Northeast’”. As such, the ATSUM said its office condemned the killing in the “strongest” term.
The ATSUM then said it “opposed to homicide” and cold blooded killings and denounced the “high level belligerence of flaunting authoritative power by the Assam Rifles against tribal populace”.
The tribal student body also said that it was lamentable that the “immature judgment of this effete officer and the ferocity committed” is an outright violation of human rights. The ATSUM further said that the “barbaric act” of Central forces to take lives of innocent humans in the state in the “behest” of draconian law AFSPA is highly condemnable and it has to stop immediately. AFSPA has been time and again used by the central security officers to meet their “selfish hunger” for promotion and gallantry awards. Therefore, the tribal student body said that AFSPA should be repealed from the state as it will be the only panacea for saving innocent lives of the state populace from the grasp of “Central forces’ brutality”.
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“Therefore, the tribal people of the land, while urging the Assam Rifles to exercise love and respect human lives, calls for justice in the killing of Mangboilal Lhouvum and at the same time appealed the concerned authority for timely intervention and immediate action so as to avoid recurrence of such “disgraceful” act in future.
The office of ATSUM then expressed solidarity to the victim’s family and prayed that “Almighty God consoles” the bereaved family.
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