UKHRUL:The Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), Sadar Hills, strongly condemned the alleged hijacking and burning of a Bolero pickup van on Thursday. The vehicle’s owner was identified as Lamtinchon Chongloi. KSO Sadar Hills alleged that the vehicle was hijacked at Mayangkhang Thangal village, Kangpokpi District, and later burned at Senapati District Headquarters.
KSO Sadar Hills said the economic blockade by the United Naga Council (UNC) at Kangpokpi has been in place for the last three months and the Kuki community had been mostly silent, maintaining peace and communal harmony. It also said that supplies for Naga people have reached them without any counter-blockade from the Kuki community during this time within Kangpokpi District.
After its own investigation, KSO Sadar Hills had found that the vehicle was bringing back essential items from a Naga acquaintance, who had obtained the items after residents had faced an economic blockade for nearly three months by Naga groups against the Kuki-Zo community. The organisation claimed that it was stopped by volunteers of Naga People’s Organisation (NPO) at Mayangkhang Village and the driver and occupants were taken out of the vehicle, beaten and deprived of food, water and medicine.
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It also claimed that an NPO volunteer told the two Kuki men to go home, promising them that their companion and the car would be released the following day, but KSO says that was not the case and that the car was burnt down.
KSO Sadar Hills has appealed to the concerned authority and the NPO to step forward, take ownership and pay some compensation to the victim for the loss of the vehicle, the loss of the commodities and the trauma suffered by the people involved. It has also called on the government and the police to take action quickly, or they would be “complicit in inaction.
The organisation warned that if the NPO, the government and other relevant authorities do not accept responsibility and show remorse for the situation, it could cause a severe breach in inter-community relations between Kuki-Zo and Nagas and the consequences would be borne by them. KSO Sadar Hills has called for immediate action and justice.
