[caption id="attachment_143537" align="alignleft" width="387"]
Students of a school in Wokha town on Monday protesting the alleged arrest and assault of a minor boy in school uniform. The alleged incident happened on October 3 last. (EM Images)[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Wokha, Oct. 9 (EMN): The Wokha district administration on Monday responded to a ‘silent procession’ staged by agitating members of the town’s public – led by the Lotha Students’ Union (LSU), the Lotha Eloe Hoho (LEH), and the All Nagaland Private Schools Association (ANPSA) Wokha unit – by clamping section 144 CrPC which prohibits assembling of more than five persons at a given location.
The three organisations were leading a ‘silent procession’ to protest the alleged arrest and assault of a minor boy who was reportedly in school uniform – as extensively reported in some of the local newspapers recently.
The Wokha administration’s decision to clamp said prohibitions, in turn, provoked furious retort from the three organisations leading the silent protest. “The three organisations vehemently and vociferously condemn the blatant use of power and force by the deputy commissioner and district magistrate, Wokha in imposing section 144 CrPC on our proposed silent procession dated October 9, 2017.
“This is sheer curbing of our democratic rights by use of brute force and state machineries. It is unfortunate that the use of section 144 CrPC has come to stay in our district – it may be mentioned that the state machineries imposed the same draconian law against the LSU during the launching of MOGPL on July 21, 2014,” a joint statement from the three organisations read.
They served a 72-hour deadline to the Wokha administration to respond “through print media from the date of its publication” to the following queries:
- “The process whereby section 144 CrPC was promulgated during a silent procession of students, teachers and women folk to voice out our democratic rights as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
- All minutes and details regarding apprehension of violence, reports of intended violence, and all such details so associated in arriving towards the decision for imposition of same.
- Disclosure of all details of order and directions, if any, received from external sources/higher ups for imposition of same.
- Section 144 CrPc was imposed on the entire starch of NH-2 from Wokha welcome gate till tourist lodge Wokha and in all the areas and stretch of roads under 15 Wards of Wokha town from 6 am dated 9th October 2017 vide letter NO. DCW/CON-1/2017, why it was imposed only towards the student’s community and not on general public as well as the vehicular movement was not restricted as per the ordered issued by the deputy commissioner.”
If the government’s expected response within stipulated period were to be not up to the expectation of the organisations, they warned that the organisations would be forced to pursue their own course of action/s. “Failing the above demands, the deputy commissioner and district magistrate, Wokha shall be held solely responsible for insulting the Lotha students community in particular and Lothas in general by using illogical conclusions for curbing the rights of citizens represented by the three apex organizations, namely, the LSU, LEH and ANPSA Wokha unit and students of all ages of our tribe and district.”
Earlier in the day, Wokha police prevented school students from participating in the silent procession. The students, in their respective school uniform, were not allowed to proceed towards the Police Point. They were forced to stage their protests outside their respective schools.
Members of the LSU, the LEH and the ANAPSA Wokha unit however proceeded to the office of the deputy commissioner of Wokha where they submitted a joint memorandum. They were accompanied by representatives of Acaut Wokha unit and the Wokha District Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
In the memorandum, the three organisations stated that on October 3 last, “a standard IX student of Brighter High School Wokha was reportedly arrested by police while still in uniform. After his release from police station, Wokha he was also allegedly assaulted by a group of people while still in uniform.”
The silent protest on Monday was to protest the ‘unethical and illegal treatment meted out to a student in uniform’, it informed. As such, they demanded that immediate investigation into the allegations be initiated, and put in place a mechanism to ensure protection of students in uniform from law enforcing agencies as well as from all authorities concerned.
