KANGPOKPI, February 20: The Kuki Students’ Organisation, Sadar Hills (KSO-SH) has vehemently condemned the “reign of terror” unleashed by 16 Assam Rifles of 10 Sector towards villagers of S Bongyang, Saikul sub division Sadar Hills on February 17, 2014 and the subsequent arrest of Damkhosei alias Seipu Khongsai son of (L) Ngamlhun Khongsai.
Thangminlen Kipgen, president KSO Sadar Hills said that on the fateful night of February 17 troops of 16 Assam Rifles who are on duty had visited S Bongyang village and ordered the villagers to prepare them a meal as if the villagers are on their pay roll which is unconventional.
Nonetheless, the villagers at the request of the village chief unhesitatingly served them the meal.
However, later in the night at around 11.00 the same AR troops covertly came back and arrest an “innocent villager” Damkhosei without producing any arrest memo only to claim the arrest as that of an over ground KLA activist published in local papers, further asserted Thangminlen Kipgen.
The student body chief continued that Letmang Khongsai, chief of Bongyang village explicitly asserted that, as far as his knowledge was concerned the arrested man is his bonafide villager and at the same time claimed to be innocent.
The student body has seriously viewed the “perpetual harassments, tortures meted out by the Assam Rifles” who happens to claim themselves to be the “Friends of the Hill People” in the hill district of Manipur from time to time, Thangminlen added before saying that it is a total embarrassment and injustice for the whole Assam Rifles to treat someone who treated you decently.
If Seipu Khongsai was to be arrested they could have arrest him in the broad day light when they first came in during the day then why arrest him late at night?, the KSO Sadar Hills leader questioned.
He further mentioned that if the arrested person happens to be a KLA activist as claimed by the AR, they should have explicitly stated to which KLA faction he belongs to with any incriminating documents or whatever recovered.
The student body also claimed that the statement of PRO IGAR (S) published on February 20 by some of the local dailies is absurd as the arrested person is not in the custody of Lamlai PS.
The people of Manipur are well versed on the modus operandi of the Assam Rifles in cooking up stories, he observed.
Therefore, if Damkhosei is not released and well compensated at the earliest, KSO will not remain as silent spectators while the innocent peace loving people are being harassed and tortured and will have to resort to any form of agitation it deems appropriate, Thangminlen Kipgen warned.