More than an incident. It is becoming increasingly clear that what happened at Bakshi ground at Ukhrul on October 24 is today much more than just an incident and has become an issue. An issue which can have far reaching consequences to the State. On the one side, the police
seem to have suddenly woken up and this can be seen from the manner in which they have gone cracking down on the NSCN (IM), arresting quite a large number of its cadres after the October 24 incident (issue) at Ukhrul and on the other side is the meticulous study that some Naga organisations seem to have conducted to justify their stand that what happened was not an attack on the Chief Minister and his team but was stage managed. The call that the
CBI be roped in to probe the case is important and why not ? The stake is high to all. One is the credibility of the State Government and the other is the fate of the peace talk underway between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM). This is perhaps the reason why so many conspiracy theories have sprung up. The joint statement issued by Naga civil society organisations, Churches and activists is a case in point. One reason why The Sangai Express (English edition) gave it due prominence is to enable readers have an idea of how things have unfolded after the October 24 abortive bid of the Chief Minister and his team to visit Ukhrul and inaugurate a number of development projects.
That the public curfew imposed by the Tangkhul Naga Long at Ukhrul district headquarters on the said day had little impact on the denizens of the district can be easily gauged from the fact that people could move around freely to put up numerous road barricades and torch two police vehicles. To be more precise the public curfew was meant only for the Chief Minister and his team and this brings the question of whether the boycott call was not enough. That the Naga civil societies, Churches and activists seem to have done a thorough job of revisiting the case on October 24 is interesting, very interesting. To give credence to the claim that what happened at Bakshi ground on the said day was stage managed, the Naga civil society organisations gave a blow by blow account of what could have happened and this is something which cannot be drawn up by just anybody. “Bullet marks on the wall of the stadium building suggest that they were fired upon from within the soccer ground itself still covered by the protective security ring. One of the marks on the wall is about 18 inches from the ground and points upward indicating that it was fired from a short distance from the ground level” is not just another observation but seems to have been examined by experts or professionals who know a thing or two about the science of gun fire, the angle from which the shot is fired etc and herein lies the interesting part.
Source: The Sangai Express
