The student body maintained that the incident brings back horrific memories of the past where on numerous occasions the security forces massacre, torture the innocent villagers and even rape the women folk for days on end in the name of fighting insurgency.
TFM Desk
Condemning the Oting massacre, the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) demanded that the Government of India should remove and repeal AFSPA, if it is really concerned about the welfare and well-being of the people of Northeast, “otherwise it will further alienate the people of the region”.
NESO, in a release on Sunday, expressed its “deep shock and anger” against the “barbaric act” of the security forces at Oting village in Mon District of Nagaland in which the armed security forces massacred the innocent villagers who were returning home from work in a pickup truck resulting to the death of numerous persons and injuries to many others on the evening of the December 4, 2021. This heinous act deserves the highest condemnation, it asserted.
“NESO feels that the Government of India does not want peace to prevail in the Northeast so that it can continue with its plan to militarise the region and can suppress the voice of the indigenous peoples through military power.”
The student body maintained that the incident brings back horrific memories of the past where on numerous occasions the security forces massacre, torture the innocent villagers and even rape the women folk for days on end in the name of fighting insurgency.
NESO also asserted that the armed forces have been operating in Northeast with impunity and they are further emboldened with the imposition of a Draconian Law known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) in which the Government of India has not only refused to repeal but decided to continue the imposition of this draconian act even though there have been massive peoples’ movement for the repeal of this Act.
The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) is a conglomerate of the Khasi Students Union (KSU), All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Naga Students” Federation (NSF), Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF), AII Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU), Garo Students’ Union (GSU), and All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), representing eight major students movement in the seven Northeastern states.