Our Correspondent
Mon, Dec. 9 (EMN): "When I give birth, whom shall my child call as the father?” asked Eli Konyak, who is in her fifth month of pregnancy.
Her husband Leiong Konyak, 34, from Chi village was killed during a protest against the Assam Rifles on December 5, a day after 13 innocent civilians from Oting village were killed in an ambush.
At her home, which is about 4 km away from Mon town, mourners were gathered to empathise with the family members when Eastern Mirror paid a visit on Thursday.
They reside in Mon town and would come home over the weekends to spend time with their family and in-laws.
The couple was about to mark their one year of marriage in January 2022 and expecting their first child, until the happy journey took a tragic turn on Sunday.
Eli’s husband never returned home after going out to protest the killing of innocent lives.
"Aren't the army supposed to protect the public? Then why did they kill him? Bring back my husband," she said, losing words to express her feelings.
"Did my husband retaliate against them (Army) with machete or arms? On what reasons did they kill him?" she asked.
She has many questions to ask with no answers in sight.
"It will be good if there is no Army in Nagaland. It will be good to chase them out of Nagaland," she said.
Leiong is also survived by his parents, grandparents, two brothers and five sisters.
Chingkap, the younger brother of Leiong, described him as "father-like figure" to the family. Being eldest among the eight siblings, he was the sole bread earner of the family, he said.
He blamed Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) for the irreparable loss befallen his home and the Land of Anghs.
'When the entire Konyaks and Nagas are mourning the massacre at Oting, my brother was killed and AFSPA is the only reason for all these,' he said.
"Revoking AFSPA would be one of the best ways of justice that can be served," the 28-year-old student leader asserted, adding that ex-gratia was not justice.
"They (government) may have some other intention" but this is relief to condole the victim’s family.
"If government think this is justice, we don't want anything," he said while demanding justice to be served.
'The ex-gratia or any announcement government made will go away but our memories of our brother will remain. Any kind of justice is not going to suffice the loss of my brother,' he said.
Chingpak wished that people remember his deceased brother as a "patriotic" Konyak and Naga.
"He proved himself by giving his life for the Konyaks and the Nagas," he said.
He added that he does not want anyone in the world to go through what he had experienced and demanded that the government takes full initiative to repeal the AFSPA.