22.7 C
Tura

HYC demands repeal of AFSPA from North East following “Oting Massacre”

Must read

Shillong, Dec 6: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has demanded the Centre to immediately repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 or AFSPA from the North East region.

“We also call upon the Government of India to rein in their Armed Forces if they really wish for peace to prevail in the region as incidents like these will only bring instability, which is not a good sign for the region as a whole. Steps should be taken towards building a peaceful North-East and the correct and necessary steps towards achieving full peace is to withdraw or repeal the AFSPA from the region completely as well as deployment or stationing Armed Forces to the bare minimum,” HYC general secretary Roy Kupar Synrem said in a statement issued here on Monday.

Condemning the firing incident which led to the death of 17 Naga civilians at Oting village under Mon district of Nagaland on December 4, Synrem said the so called Operation of the Armed Forces is nothing but a mere excuse and cover up of its complete failure to distinguish between innocent unarmed civilians and the so called militants and, hence, civilian lives are lost as a result of the shooting spree.

Advertisement

He said the HYC would like to reiterate the fact that the root cause for such a bold act of killing spree by Armed Forces in the States like Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh is on account of the draconian AFSPA which provides immunity to the Armed Forces to act without any repercussion in the so called “disturbed areas”.

“Hence, we call upon each and everyone of our brothers and sisters especially our elected representatives in the North-East to stand together and impress upon the Union Government to repeal the operation of AFSPA in the North-Eastern Region in order to avoid any further loss of innocent civilians lives like the ‘Oting Massacre’ or the Malom Massacre’ in the future,” Roy added.

He also said the HYC stands by the Naga brothers and sisters in these trying times as they fight for justice.

Advertisement

More articles

-->
-->

Latest article