Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 10 2009:
Incidents of killings occur almost everyday in the region, but what's most shocking about the recent triple murder is the manner in which they were brutally hacked wih a hoe and clobbered with a rock to death, Ksh Yoiheiba, Senior Publicity Officer of Department of Publicity, UNLF stated in a press release.
He further contended that all three of them were abducted from the office chamber of the DC Ukhrul District.
Three Tangkhul staff namely, Extension Officer RS Ramsing, village level worker S Ramthing and peon Kapangkhui were also among those abducted.
The three men also remained untraceable for days without any information whether they were killed or still alive.
After four days, they were found alive at Toloi.
The statement pointed out that people of Manipur were happy on hearing that the three men were found alive.
However, why the State Government is concealing them needs to be clarified.
The three Tangkhuls, whose lives the NSCN-IM had spared, must honestly relate the full details of the grisly murder to the people.
Though there had been reports earlier that some Tangkhul goondas or "black sheep of the family" had committed the murder, later it came to be known that some high-ranking persons of the NSCN-IM had carried out the ghastly murder.
As the situation worsened, the NSCN-IM began talking in different tongues to save their own skin, the UNLF's statement pointed out.
It further narrated that since "peace talk" started not long after the ceasefire agreement signed with the Government of India in August, 1997, the NSCN-IM had begun to move away from the substantive issue of the Nagas' struggle for liberation.
Since then, they had begun to keep distance from the poor Nagas who were reeling under the myriad burdens.
Thus forgetting the source of the sufferings of the lives of the Nagas, the NSCN-IM had been trying to sway them merely with issues, brought up from time to time, that hurt the sentiments of the people and that only created tension amongst the people, the statement added.
Based on petty matters relating to this region, the NSCN-IM, with an objective of putting on the mantle of champion of the Nagas, especially the Nagas of Manipur, had begun to call economic blockade in series which were targeted at Manipur valley inhabited mainly by Meeteis.