Dimapur, April 4 (EMN): Global Naga Forum (GNF) stated that the Armed Forces (Special Forces) Act must be immediately repealed ‘from the entire Naga homeland’ while condemning the recent incident at Chasa village in Arunachal Pradesh, where paramilitary forces “mistakenly” shot two villagers.
The injured youths, Ramwang Wangsu and Nokphua Wangpan have been admitted by the DC Tirap and 6th AR Commandant at Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, Assam.
GNF said that on March 21, ‘the 6th Assam Rifles went to Kolagoan village and Retto Kakho in Arunachal Pradesh, and shot and killed a former Panchayat leader in front of his villagers and family members. Three months before that, on 4th and 5th December 2021, fourteen innocent civilians were murdered in Oting and Mon in Nagaland. No armed personnel have been criminally prosecuted for these or any of the thousands of Naga civilians murdered by the Indian army since the Disturbed Areas Act and AFSPA have been in force.
“These are the facts and reality of the Naga people in our own homeland that the Government of India, the Army, the Parliament, and their political collaborators in the states have created and caused us to face from the mid-1950s to today,” read the statement.
“We are sick and tired of the combined and endless betrayal of the Indian government, parliament, and Army,’ it said.
‘We appeal to the law enforcement agencies to book the culprits immediately and criminal prosecution be brought against every offender. Crucially, the AFSPA -- the Act that has legalised the oppression, murder, and dehumanization of the Nagas for 64 years -- must be immediately “repealed” from the entire Naga homeland. It must be repealed for good by Parliament in the interest of India’s survival as a democracy and as a society governed by the rule of law,” it read.