CHANDEL, November 20: A large number of people of the Aimol tribe took out a mass protest rally and staged a sit in protest against the erection of a monolith declaring the joining of Aimol into Naga tribe at Pallel Bazar today.
Hundreds of protestors including womenfolk took out the Mass Protest Rally starting from Aimol Ngairong Village and proceeded upto Unapal Lamkhai along the Imphal-Moreh section of National Highway 102 via Pallel Bazar and staged a sit in protest at a waiting shed of Pallel Bazar.
The protestors held several placards decrying `Naga Stone Erection in Aimol Land is not acceptable, We are not Naga, Aimol will be Aimo l- No suffix or prefix to the Aimol Tribe, We the Aimol people protest and condemn a monolith stone erection of Naga Stone in Aimol land, etc.`
Speaking in the sideline of the protest demonstration, Aimol Tribe Union Manipur (ATUM) president Akhel Aimol said that the majority of the Aimol people living in Churachandpur, Sadar Hills, Chandel and other places do not accept the declaration of Aimol as a Naga on April 13 last and subsequent erection of Monolith.
The said declaration and erection of the monolith is a handiwork of some individuals for their own vested interest with the support of just four villages out of 15 Aimol villages in Manipur, he added.
The Tribe`™s president also maintained that Aimol is a unique and indigenous tribe of the State having a distinct custom, culture, tradition and dialect.
The identity of one`™s tribe cannot be changed by mere erection of a monolith. As such Aimol cannot be a Naga by erecting a monolith even hundred times, said the president.
The Aimol Tribe`™s president further maintained that Aimol will remain as Aimol and will peacefully co-exist with other communities as it was before.
Chandel ADC member from 7- Aimol Tampak DCC, Ch Chanthoi Aimol who is also the advisor and a former Tribe`™s president said that despite the people of Aimol unanimously adopting the principle of neutrality in 2001 in which it was resolved that no individuals, tribe`™s president or village chief should dragged the Aimol Tribe into any other community`™s fold but should remain neutral as an Aimol, former president S Munthuireng in collusion with some Nagas declared Aimol as a Naga which is unacceptable to the people.
While condemning the act of selling away of one`™s identity like a goods, the ADC member further said that such act of selling away one`™s tribe for vested interest is unacceptable to all as well as to the people of Aimol.
We the Aimol will remain as Aimol and will be known as Aimol till our extinction, said the ADC member.
