It’s an annual ritual and is done for this year. Irom Sharmila was re-arrested late yesterday night on the charge of attempt to commit suicide, two days after her release from jail. The release came when her health condition began deteriorating alarmingly following the cessation of nose feeding by which she has been kept alive in all of the 15 years and more she has been on hunger strike.
In the 15 years of her life in jail, she has been released and re-arrested 15 times just so that the law against detention without trial for more than a year is dodged. If this scenario wasn’t so tragic, it would actually have been funny.
Sharmila, who has pledged not to eat until the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is repealed from Manipur, is in custody not so much because she has committed any cognisable felony, but to keep her from dying of voluntary starvation.
Can her hunger strike be interpreted as an attempt to take her own life? Sharmila certainly does not think so. She has always maintained she loves life and if, as alleged, she is suicidal, many means to end her life have never been far from her – electrocution and hanging being the closest and simplest at hand.
The irony is unique. She is refusing food, even if this were to mean death, all for the love of life and to protect its dignity. How can her supposed crime deserving arrest be defined in legal terms? Indeed, Sharmila’s resistance, because it is so unique, has been raising enigmatic questions like this that defy easy answers. The law’s inability to find a satisfactory answer to such questions cannot have been playing out more dramatically than this annual ritual of release and re-arrest Sharmila has been compelled to go through all these years.
Disturbing thought
It is a disturbing thought that this ritual can be predicted to continue on till such a time as the AFSPA is repealed or Sharmila dies of old age. From the look of things on the ground, the latter seems more likely at this moment. One can only hope that the Indian state’s outlook to draconian laws with very definite colonial vintage, such as the AFSPA and the sedition law, changes sooner.
Sometimes, when the answer to a question becomes impossibly elusive, the way out may actually be to change the question instead. The fact is, if Sharmila is given freedom today, she will certainly die, for the iron-willed woman is not about to give up what she loves to call her Gandhian struggle.
In the present case too, in two days of her release, her health condition began showing signs of trauma and distress, prompting government doctors who were attending her to recommend re-arrest and resumption of nose feeding. After 15 years of this artificially fed diet, doctors are not sure of the condition of her immune system, and are fearful a little neglect can lead her health to plummet to a point of no return.
Arresting her in this sense is actually about saving her from certain death. What the situation therefore demands may be a law that does not incriminate the arrested person. Sharmila has said it so many times that she has not transgressed any law and therefore does not want to be treated as an outlaw.
Nobody will dispute she does have a point there. The colonial legacy of policing being what it is in India, there is always a sense of criminality associated with anybody arrested by the police. Those who have been campaigning for Sharmila’s freedom too must see things from this vantage. What every well-wisher wants and should want is Sharmila free but alive as well, but till such a time, her custody should be seen as a benign overture, even by these campaigners.
It will help if the provision of the Indian Penal Code by which she is detained is also reformed to actually say and mean goodwill custody, as for instance by making it signify hospitalisation rather than arrest.
In the meantime, it is more than evident, and with a renewed sense of urgency in the present times in the face of the JNU crisis, that draconian laws such as the AFSPA must go for they have no place in a democracy. Ways also must be found to democratically settle the insurrections which caused these laws to be conceived of in the first place. Looked at another way, the very continuance of these laws is evidence not only of the authoritarian lobby of the Indian state, but also the failure of its liberals to find democratic answers to radical dissents and challenges to the state. Release, Re-arrest, Repeat. This Has Been Irom Sharmila’s Life For 15 Years
World’s longest hunger-striker pleads for “mass support” against AFSPA legislation
Imphal, Manipur: Nov. 18, 2015 — “What I really want from the world is their voice against this draconian law,” says the Iron Lady of Manipur, Irom Sharmila, in a filmed statement delivered after the 15th anniversary of her ongoing hunger-strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Speaking in a labored and fragile voice worn from fifteen years of hunger, Sharmila describes her motivation for refusing to eat for fifteen years. Her hunger-strike protest began on November 2, 2000 after she witnessed Indian paramilitary massacre 10 people waiting at a bus stop and get away with it. Since AFSPA grants security forces legal impunity to commit violence while deployed in northeastern India’s state of Manipur, preventing prosecution for the massacre, she decided to resort to a nonviolent form of protest for its repeal.
Stressing that she is hunger-striking “to turn wrong governance,” Sharmila pleads with the world to join her voice against AFSPA, warning: “The absence of mass support is certain to have me face death due to starvation without fulfilling my demands.” Noting that India is vying for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, she insists the country first “needs to show the real democracy by repealing this draconian law from the Indian Constitution.”
AFSPA, a national law selectively enacted in several supposedly “troubled” Indian states, places those areas under martial law and grants security forces the power to warrantless property searches, arbitrary arrests, and deadly force on suspicion of a person. Seven of India’s 29 states currently enforce AFSPA, including Jammu and Kashmir, a northwestern state considered the most militarized zone in the world and a flashpoint for catastrophic international conflict.
Famously used by Mohandas Gandhi before the country’s independence in 1947, hunger-striking is a common form of peaceful political protest in India. Sharmila, after fifteen years, is the world’s longest hunger-striker. Nine days after Sharmila’s hunger-strike anniversary, another activist in India passed 300 days of fasting for justice. In India’s northwestern state of Punjab, the world’s oldest hunger-striker is an 83-year-old Sikh man, Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa, who has refused to eat since January 16, 2015 in demand for the release of political prisoners.
Striking a forelorn figure, Sharmila, who has spent the last 15 years caught in a repeated cycle of arrests, force-feeding, and isolation, expresses her desire to “resume my past normal life.” Condemning the arrest of her fiancé, Desmond Coutinho, a resident of Ireland who was arrested while visiting her in 2014, she says his detention “kept him in jail for 77 days under physical and mental harassment.”
Everything, Sharmila states, “has its beginning and ending,” and so she says her struggle also should have its end. “I really am tired of this way of life,” she mourns, indicating her strong desire to conclude the hunger-strike. She says local Manipuris “want me to remain a deity,” but that she is “a human being who has all desires of life.” Yet she remains committed to continuing her struggle until AFSPA is repealed.
“If my demand is fulfilled,” says Sharmila, “after I am getting married to my fiancé, Desmond, I will never stop [being] committed to social works…. I want to commit to him, with my life partner, just like a couple of peace birds to give message of hope to the world.”
In correspondence with Organization for Minorities of India, Coutinho reports that his fianceé, who is charged with attempted suicide by a Delhi court, is scheduled for a final court appearance from December 14 to 16. “It would be helpful to gather some momentum, if possible,” appeals Coutinho. Imploring unity among India’s human rights activists, he says: “I would certainly try to reach out to Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa’s family, requesting them to stand beside Sharmila in Delhi when she is sent.”
Last year, Amnesty International called for “dropping all charges of attempted suicide against Prisoner of Conscience Irom Sharmila and releasing her immediately and unconditionally.”
In her statement, however, Sharmila objects to calls for her unconditional release, saying: “The world seems to be think of me as if I am demanding for my right to death so they are just campaigning for my release without condition. They don’t bother to touch on my cause, my real hopes, which is to repeal AFSPA.”
Transcription:
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for giving me this chance to express myself. It is certain that I am resolved to get married after my demand is fulfilled. I think our local people want me remain as a deity, their own view, but not as a human being.
Right now, my trial is going on, and last year also. And [when] my first trial was going on, my fiancé Desmond, who is right now in Ireland, tried to assist me as my spokesperson at my trial at the court, but the defense lawyer, Khaidem, denied his intervention in my cause so strongly that he prodded local meira paibee imas to prevent him from intervening. And, with the incitement of the defence lawyer to provoke their annoyance, [Desmond] was beaten just outside the court campus by the meira paibee imas. They had him arrested on the next day on false charges. That was arrestation kept him in jail for 77 days under physical and mental harassment. Still he is planning to come this time also while my trial is still going on in Manipur’s Cheirap Court Uripok at my invitation to assist me as my spokesman at my trial. I really don’t [want] the verdict of the world about my personal life as a humanity.
What I am doing [with my hunger-strike] is just to turn the wrong governance. I just did challenge the long imposition of our law. Laws which are meant to serve us a democratic people turn against us. Why should we remain contented with wrong implication of rules?
In that sense I did step in as an interested stand but me too is a humanity, a human being who has all desires of life. And I can’t avoid, I can’t escape these senses of mine. Why should our people remain contented just seeing me as a symbol of resistance?
We also are part of the society, and society is made up of families, and I want — after getting success in my struggle — I want to resume my normal, resume my past normal life. Resume just to a simple woman. Want to taste the beauties of life. I just want to gain success — which is so rightful — with the intervention of the public. And I am really in need of their joining hands.
I know that everything has its beginning and ending. As to my struggle also, I should have ending also. One day it’s beginning. And, if my demand is fulfilled, after I am getting married to my fiancé Desmond, I will never stop [being] committed to social works which are so earnestly expected. My life partner has social problems… I want to commit to him, with my life partner, just like a couple of peace birds to give message of hope to the world [with] my experience as a long fighter for justice.
And I really want to influence the whole world against discrimination, especially against human trafficking. I really want to [be] useful to the whole world till my demand is fulfilled also.
And yet I think that the present mindset of our people continues as before. The absence of mass support is certain to have me face death due to starvation without fulfilling my demands just after my trial is finished with the verdict of the judge to release me without condition. But I really want to get success after struggling for so long. Fifteen years!
Yet the world seems to be think of me as if I am demanding for my right to death so they are just campaigning for my release without condition. They don’t bother to touch on my cause, my real hopes, which is to repeal AFSPA. [What] I really want from the world is their voice against this draconian law.
The present Indian government is so hardly trying to [get] permanent membership of the UN Security Council, but just ahead of placing this title — I mean for membership — the Indian government needs to show the real democracy by repealing this draconian law from the Indian Constitution to suit the respect[ed] terms of human rights for its people.
And I really want the world to see the real being of me. Just as if humanity has bodily witness — daily, physically, its limit — I really am tired of this way of life. Really tired. So please intervene.
I really want the verdict of the people, yes or no as to my fasting because me also is a part of the society. I am deserving of getting this verdict, and, accordingly, their reaction to the concerned government will create some positive acts to my present situation to end up my fast with my victory. Without the support of the masses how can I be fruitful in my demands? It is a mass cause. I want them to see me as a humanity not just as a tool for society’s problems.
And I [am] really worried about my fiancé’s future in case I have to die, in absence of people’s support, after the judgment of the judge at my trial. Since our people, women, [are] criticizing him in their own views since they don’t want our relationship. My personal life’s status they sometimes said that they never even in their dreams also [thought] about my turning into a romantic affair. In such a situation of me too, [I] can’t escape human love, human emotion, and him demonstrating his love, his care for me as a humanity.
How can I avoid it? So natural, we are all mortal. We come into this earth so nakedly and alone, and we will pass away alone, nakedly, without companion, any property, any title. All these material issues, titles, persons, all these things are man-made and impermanent. While we’re living in this world, what we really need to do is try in our ways to connect with each other, to depend on each other with a social personal being to prove that we are the most civilized creatures of the world. We are every source of peace and every source of changes. We are the source of happiness and beauties. I should like to control other’s lives, but until ourselves, others intervention to our personal being.
I really want the world to awake to birth and joy. I’m really displeased with the insensitiveness of the world. Our local society. Humanly. I really want to thank for giving a chance to express myself, my inner thoughts and this: to say, help the world as a temporary of this generation. Thank you very much.
REPEAL OF Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) FROM ALL REGIONS OF MANIPUR, OTHER NORTH EAST AREAS AND J&K
RELEASE OF IROM SHARMILA
We are petitioning to Prime Minister of India for his urgent and immediate intervention to start process of Repeal AFSPA from all regions. This petition is to offer our respect towards Anti AFSPA crusader and world’s longest hunger striker Ms. Irom Sharmila Chanu, who is completing her 15 years of hunger strike on 2nd Nov. Along with the petition, we are jointly organizing nationwide protest to demand above points and activists, individuals and organizations are registering their voice in various states of India for these demands. We hope that Prime Minister will also listen these voices and he will do the needful to recognize and to respect human rights and dignity of life of common people.
Govt’s own committees have recommended to repeal this act. Even many fake killings, rapes and cases of disappearances were not only reported but even proved, but till now govt has not repealed this act. Many national and international human rights organizations also raising their voice to demand to repeal this act. State leadership of BJP in Manipur and PDP in J&K had favored to repeal of this act, but now they are silent.
Irom Sharmila, a woman from Manipur is completing 15 years of her hunger protest on 2nd Nov. She is observing fast as a form of protest since the year 2000 (when she was about 28 years old), and she had started it just after Malom massacre where Assam rifles had fired upon local civilians who were waiting at a bus stand in Malom, Imphal (Manipur) and all were killed. Irom decided to register her protest because incidents of torture and killings were common in Manipur and in the veil of the powers under AFSPA, nothing could be done against culprit security personals. Irom sharmila started her fast and did not leave it since then. She has only demand, Repeal AFSPA, as it is AFSPA that is main culprit , because it provides extra ordinary powers to security personals to operate in Manipur and other such areas and these powers have been misused widely.
AFSPA has provisions of shoot to kill mere on probability, but it does not stop here, instead it goes beyond and says that no case can be lodged against any security personals without pre sanction from central government. Sadly, in all such years, no approval was given by central government and despite hundreds of reported cases of fake killings, torture and rapes, nothing could be done to punish culprits.
As, Irom Sharmila did not leave her fast, Manipur police registered a case against her under section 309 of ‘attempt to suicide’ and put her in jail. During her release from jail for a day in 2006, Irom Sharmila came to Delhi, paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and later joined a fast at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police also registered another case under same section of attempt to suicide here in Delhi and matter went to court. Presently, Irom Sharmila is under arrest by Manipur police and living her life in security ward of JLN hospital of Manipur. The case in Delhi also, is still going on and Irom Sharmila appears before Delhi court on court notices and when Manipur government becomes ready to produce her at Delhi.
Despite her fast since last 15 years and government’s ignorance, even suppression through lodging her behind bars, did not break her faith in democracy or non violence. She always smiles, and tells , ‘I have faith in democracy. Government will listen one day’
Sadly, government is not listening, and even one of her demand to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been accepted yet. She thinks Prime Minister does not want to meet her as probably government has no reply for all her demands and questions about suppression of people through AFSPA.
AFSPA, is a legislation that contributes to the overall impunity framework in states where it is enforced. National bodies including Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission; and the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir concur with our opinion. These expert bodies have recommended your office to advice the Government of India to repeal AFSPA. The experts have categorically mentioned that a law like AFSPA will only facilitate violence and will not prevent it.
Sharmila, a woman from Manipur is completing 15 years of her hunger protest on 2nd Nov. She is observing fast as a form of protest since the year 2000 (when she was about 28 years old), and she had started it just after Malom massacre where Assam rifles had fired upon local civilians who were waiting at a bus stand in Malom, Imphal (Manipur) and all were killed. Irom decided to register her protest because incidents of torture and killings were common in Manipur and in the veil of the powers under AFSPA, nothing could be done against culprit security personals.
Irom sharmila started her fast and did not leave it since then. She has only demand, Repeal AFSPA, as it is AFSPA that is main culprit , because it provides extra ordinary powers to security personals to operate in Manipur and other such areas and these powers have been misused widely.
AFSPA has provisions of shoot to kill mere on probability, but it does not stop here, instead it goes beyond and says that no case can be lodged against any security personals without pre sanction from central government.
Sadly, in all such years, no approval was given by central government and despite hundreds of reported cases of fake killings, torture and rapes, nothing could be done to punish culprits.
As, Irom Sharmila did not leave her fast, Manipur police registered a case against her under section 309 of ‘attempt to suicide’ and put her in jail. During her release from jail for a day in 2006, Irom Sharmila came to Delhi, paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and later joined a fast at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police also registered another case under same section of attempt to suicide here in Delhi and matter went to court.
Presently, Irom Sharmila is under arrest by Manipur police and living her life in security ward of JLN hospital of Manipur. The case in Delhi also, is still going on and Irom Sharmila appears before Delhi court on court notices and when Manipur government becomes ready to produce her at Delhi.
AFSPA, is a legislation that contributes to the overall impunity framework in states where it is enforced. National bodies including Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission; and the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir concur with our opinion. These expert bodies have recommended your office to advice the Government of India to repeal AFSPA. The experts have categorically mentioned that a law like AFSPA will only facilitate violence and will not prevent it.
Here’s proof that poor get gallows, rich mostly escape
Himanshi Dhawan & Pradeep Thakur,TNN | Jul 21, 2015, 01.44 AM IST
Disadvantaged often can’t pay for good lawyers.
NEW DELHI: The fact that our legal system is skewed against the poor and marginalized is well-known. And to that extent, it’s only expected that they get harsher punishment than the rich. But here are figures that tell the full story.
A first of its kind study, which has analyzed data from interviews with 373 death row convicts over a 15-year period, has found three-fourths of those given the death penalty belonged to backward classes, religious minorities and 75% were from economically weaker sections.
The reason why the poor, Dalits and those from the backward castes get a rougher treatment from our courts is more often than not their inability to find a competent lawyer to contest their conviction. As many asIn
The findings are part of a study conducted by the National Law University students with the help of the Law Commission that is currently engaged in a wider consultation with different stakeholders on the issue of death penalty and whether it should be abolished.
Law panel chairman Justice A P Shah, himself a strong proponent of abolition of death penalty, is to submit a final report to the Supreme Court by next month.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said: “It is true that there is a class bias, otherwise why would we have so many people languishing in jail because they cannot afford a lawyer to get bail?” He said only 1% of the people can afford a competent lawyer. Afzal Guru hardly had any legal representation at the trial court stage, he added.
Founder of Human Rights Law Network and senior advocate Colin Gonsalves holds similar views. “I think the finding that 75% of the death row convicts are poor is the absolute minimum. The rich mostly get away while the very poor, especially Dalits and tribals, get the short shrift.”
The NLU students have interviewed all the death sentence convicts and have documented their socio-economic background. The psychological torture these prisoners face before they are hanged are some of the observations in the study. Prisoners on death row are not allowed to attend court proceedings most of the time. In many cases, those interviewed revealed they were unable to understand proceedings even when they got an opportunity to be in the court as there was not much interaction with their lawyers.
“Gallows are only for the marginalized. The first thing when a person is arrested is his access to a lawyer. The poor don’t get that access while the well-off do and that completely changes their case,” said Suhas Chakma of Asian Centre for Human Rights. For the economically weak, legal aid or advice comes at the trial stage by which time it is too late, he added.
Within the prison, death row convicts are put in separate barracks and kept in solitary confinement. They are not allowed to work unlike other prisoners or mingle with anyone else, leading to many psychological disorders. The result is startling. Many prisoners interviewed said they wanted to die and should be hanged without delay. A few mentally strong ones said if represented well they could escape the gallows.
Between 2000 and 2015, 1,617 were sentenced to death by the trial courts – 42% of them from UP and Bihar. The conviction rate, however, at the stage of high courts and the SC was much lower at 17.5% and 4.9% respectively. Most death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment or acquitted
The discussion on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act- 1958 has been going on for more than the last 5 (five) decades. Despite recommendations by various international bodies to repeal it, the Act is still enforcing in northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir.
Political activists and human rights defenders have been continuing various forms of protests for repeal of the draconian act to save democracy. The ‘draconian’ Act,was adapted from the Armed Forces Special Powers (Ordinance) that was imposed by the then British colonial ruler to suppress the Quit India Movement in 1942.
Even with its more than 50 years of existence, the Act- AFSPA, which empowers enormous powers to Indian army in “disturbed areas”, failed to redress armed conflicts in the states of northeastern and Jammu and Kashmir.
Imphal Times initiated a discussion with various stakeholders regarding the 50 years of AFSPA and insurgency movements.
“AFSPA targets the entire population, who are not originally Indian and merged to the Union post independence. The Act is not related with insurgency; as the British did to Indian during independence struggle it is a political and military scheme to suppress the separatist movements and to bring the these people into a single fold”, Seram Rojesh, political activist and researcher in Delhi University told this paper.
He also said that if the Act is to curb the insurgency movement than why not it had been imposed in Naxal affected areas.
While Mubasir Raji, a freelance journalist observed, “India is working hard to integrate both morally and culturally the northeastern part to mainland India. Any act or policy which antagonizes the people kills the very purpose of it. AFSPA is a draconian Act which does not have a place in any part of the world.”
About the recent spate of violence in Manipur, he added that the root cause of arm conflict is identity crisis and the cultural polarization. Acting in vengeance and discrimination towards the northeast will only create cleavages. Counter insurgency operations should not create a war like atmosphere while the Indian government is trying to bridge the huge historical and cultural gaps. The existing tendency to look things emotionally will not work for a good cause.
Jiten Ahongsangba, social worker also expressed similar opinion. “We are in conflict zone between two lethal powers; in this scenario people will be suffered. With AFSPA more anti Indian feeling will rise among the northeastern part of India. If the concern Ministry does not realize, one day India might be United States of India. It must be removed without delay. Everything will improve and prosperity when it repeal.”
Rajkumar Noni Bala, a PhD scholar in Delhi University said that we need to look at the history, why AFSPA was imposed and how it came into the present situation. Law and order imbalance due to poor government and insurgency has invited the AFSPA in the state.
“Some of us would be very disappointed to this but the truth is that we have made it so; still many of us are fighting against the Indian Government to repeal AFSPA from the state. But not anyone of us is even trying to request the insurgency organisation to stop their operation of killing people in the state,” she said.
“What the Indian army kills are only people, are not the insurgency not killing our own people. Are not the insurgency groups violating the basic human rights of all the people in Manipur? We are still looking at the very old tradition of looking at the other as guilty of everything and not our own self as the culprit.”
It is high time for all to come out of narrow mind set and looks toward an alternative solution and path which will bring peace and solidarity in the state. It is not just possible and early we realise better we can developed sooner. If not just imagine the future of Manipur, who will rule the state those with gun in their hand or the people themselves. As a common man, I have feel the pain and fear of both the two powerful force operating in the State. I could not bear any more blood and parts of bodies scatter all around the street of Manipur.
Source: http://imphaltimes.com/news/item/2992-does-afspa-have-its-purpose-of-existence
In most Indian states, undertrials make up over half the prison population. Photo: K.V. Ramana
Prison statistics for 2013 released earlier this week show that undertrials are filling India’s prisons. But how does India’s prison population compare globally?
Within India, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have far higher incarceration rates (prisoners for every 100,000 people) than other states. Bear in mind that these are for the population as a whole, but since 96 per cent of India’s prison population is male, these rates are nearly double for the male population.
How does this compare globally? It puts India near the bottom, even its worst states. (The international data here is from the International Centre for Prison Studies.)
And how does India’s undertrial situation look in the global context?
Among Indian states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar stand out, housing over 85,000 undertrials between them. In most Indian states, undertrials make up over half the prison population.
Here, India’s worst states are worse off than the countries at the bottom of the world’s list, and India itself does worse or nearly as badly as its neighbours.
MHA officials’ conspiracy to destabilise North-East?
The sudden outbreak of violence in trouble-torn Northeastern states including the deadliest Manipur killing, have been the fallout of abrupt break down of ceasefire agreement with the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, which was provoked by a section of officials in the home ministry and military intelligence.
This is what the security agencies have reported to the Union home minister Rajnath Singh who decided to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in to the killings of 18 Assam Rifles soldiers in Manipur on June 4.
Disclosing that even Union home minister was kept in dark about the developments leading to break down of the cease-fire agreement with the NSCN-K, authoritative security sources in the home ministry told this newspaper that investigation of security agency has revealed that two Naga leaders, Wangtin Naga and P. Tikhak, who were expelled by none other than Mr Khaplang himself, were used by security agencies to break the ceasefire.
Indicating that officials in the home ministry planted news through a news agency — Vision Communications — security sources said that the home ministry officials, instead of denying rather, floated news in media of Northeastern states that the home ministry was not going to extend the ceasefire with Khaplang faction after March 31. Though, the home ministry had not taken any decision on not extending the ceasefire with the NSCN-K. Moreover, the NSCN-K cadres were allowed to leave “designated camps” with arms and ammunitions without any resistance of the Army in Nagaland.
Referring to evidences that sleuth of military intelligence in connivance with a section of home ministry officials had lured the NSCN-K commanders, security sources said that Wangtin Naga was told that his bank account containing nearly `3 crore would defreeze if he helps in breaking the ceasefire. Though, he refused to fall in line.
In a startling revelation the report sent to Mr Singh pointed out that top home ministry official who was constantly in touch with Manipur chief minister Ibobi Singh travelled to Arunachal Pradesh to meet the NSCN-K commanders a week before Mr Khaplang announced unilaterally to break the ceasefire.
The top home ministry officials and MI sleuths in New Delhi were not happy over the decision of the Narendra Modi government to remove the Army from counter-insurgency operations in phased manner, security sources said, adding, that if Naga rebel groups are taken on board, no insurgent groups would be able to sustain their armed struggle for a long time in the Northeast.
Meanwhile, the NIA on Sunday registered a case to probe the killing of 18 Army personnel in Chandel district of Manipur, an incident which has been described as the worst ever attack. According to a NIA spokesperson, the case was registered in the agency’s Guwahati branch under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Asserting that breaking down of ceasefire with Khaplang faction of NSCN was the part of a larger conspiracy, security sources said that the NIA may also be asked to probe these aspects of the Manipur killing which is suspected to have the foot-print of some political conspiracy too.
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