Sehlon incident : Victim tells tale of woes
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 23 2012: "With my hand broken, I'm at my wits end.

I don't believe I can send my two children to school any longer", cried 55 year old Zengkhothang Baite whose right had fractured when Assam Rifles personnel thrashed him with a stout club.

Zengkhothang Baite is one among the villagers who were beaten up by the Assam Rifles personnel at Sehlon some days back.

Apart from the physical pain, both Zengkhothang and his wife are suffering serious mental crisis since the day troops of 36 AR demonstrated their ferocity on the husband.

The couple were daily wage earners struggling for not only survival but also for providing decent education to their small children.

It is not only the broken hand.

His head was also smashed by the AR personnel.

Even as Zengkhothang lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground on account of the incessant blows, he was trampled upon by the AR personnel with their boots, alleged the villagers.

He fell down a steep hill slope.

For all the excruciating pain and mental harassment, Zengkhothang could not find any possible reasons why he was victimised so ruthlessly.

The injured Baite at a hospital

Zengkhothang is one of the many victims that included even pregnant women who were severely assaulted by troops of 36 Assam Rifles on February 23 .

He is still undergoing treatment at Christian Hospital, Chandel Sehlon village situated about 150 Kms away from Imphal under Molcham police station in Chandel district.

Sehlon is a small village having a total population of just around 150 people.

Zengkhothang is one of the many victims that included even pregnant women who were severely assaulted by troops of 36 Assam Rifles on February 23.He is still undergoing treatment at Christian Hospital, Chandel.

Since February 16, 17 victims of the Sehlon outrage were undergoing treatment at the same hospital.

The victims include two women who are pregnant for six months and three months respectively.

Talking with The Sangai Express, Zengkhothang said that three youngsters and one old man were taken away by AR troops in connection with the death of a non-local man working in the AR canteen in the night of February 14 .

As all the four men were innocent, the villagers waited for their release at the gate of the AR post.

The AR troops wielding stout clubs and firewood responded by raining blows on the unarmed innocent civilians.

Even as the villagers ran back to their village, the AR personnel chased them and thrashed them severely without sparing even women and children, Zengkhothang recounted.

To drive away the small group of villagers, the AR personnel wielding firewood ran out in full speed and started raining blows on the villagers with all the ferocity without any warning.

"My right hand got fractured and fell down a hill slope on account of the incessant thrashing.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself entangled at the foot of a tree" .

"Had I have not entangled with the tree, I would have fallen on Zongbuny river which was flowing below, and it could have meant the end of my life", Zengkhothang said.

As he could not lift his broken hand, Zengkhothang supported it with his left hand and limped back to the hill where he met his family members who were searching for him.

Out of his seven children, one daughter and a son are still studying.

While the son is reading in class XI at Churachandpur town, the daughter is studying in a private school at Sugnu in class VI.

Both of them are staying in boarding homes and their monthly educational expenditure is around Rs 6000 .

To meet their educational expenditure as well as to keep the kitchen fire burning, Zengkhothang was toiling hard as a wood cutter, sometimes as a fisherman and at other times as a farmer.

With his right hand broken, Zengkhothang is virtually incapacitated to engage himself in any of his traditional occupations.

"I'm really at my wits end and I could not think of any alternative source of livelihood.

Doctors told me that my fracture was of severe nature and it would take a long time to heal fully.

I am worried if ever I can work with my right hand again", Zengkhothang lamented.

Other than the two children who are now studying, all the other five children dropped off after class X as Zengkhothang could afford their further education.

"My son now studying at Churachandpur is brilliant and I would like him to study further.

But God only knows if I could afford the requisite expenditure", the worried father said.

Earlier, there were around 40 household in Sehlon but many families left the village due to active insurgency movement in the area.

It was the most helpless people who stayed back and it was this unfortunate class of people who were assaulted mercilessly by AR men, he decried.