The Civil Society Organisations (CSO) said the security personnel involved in the firing incident should be punished and demanded immediate repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA).
KOHIMA — The Konyak civil society organisations here on Monday said that no ex-gratia or compensation from the government would be accepted until justice was delivered to all the 14 victims, including the survivors and family members of the December 4 incident.
The Central government and the state government had earlier announced a total ex-gratia of Rs 16 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh to the kin of the slain and injured civilians respectively after the December 4 firing by the security forces that left 14 civilians killed and 30 others injured in Mon district of northern Nagaland.
The Civil Society Organisations (CSO) including Konyak Union, Oting Village Council, Konyak Students’ Union, Konyak Nyupuh Sheko Khung and other leaders separately told the media that all the security personnel who were involved in the firing incident should be punished immediately. They also demanded the immediate repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA).
In separate statements, the civil society organisations also demanded to allocate a site to erect a monolith in respect of the victims.
They said the site would be used as ‘Genocide Park’ in order to commemorate the 14 innocent lives.
The CSOs warned that if their demand for allocation of a site was not met at the earliest, the Konyaks would be compelled to take extreme courses of action.
Since December 4, the CSOs have been organising various commemorative and protest events across Nagaland, including in capital city Kohima.
As part of this programme, a candlelight march would be held across villages of Mon district on Monday in collaboration with Konyak Baptist Bumeinok Bangjum (KBBB).
This will be followed with a mass public rally on December 16 and a reminder of the earlier memorandum would be submitted to the Government of India through the state government.
The Nagaland government last week has decided to hold a special session of the Assembly on December 20 to discuss and pass a resolution for repealing the AFSPA.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed by the state government to probe the December 4 incident, has requested the people having any information on the incident to contact it.
“Any person having photos, videos, of suspicious activities from primary source or any other information connected with the incident in original not forwarded (secondary source), may kindly share it in the interest of police investigation,” a notification said.
The 5-member SIT has started its investigation under the overall supervision of Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Sandeep M. Tamgadge.
Meanwhile, the Army has also initiated the court of inquiry into the incident, which rocked the entire country. — IANS
