Mukesh Sharma: The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, the representative body of Indian Gorkhas, expressed deep shock and horror at the brutal rape of a 13-year-old Gorkha girl in Paomei Colony in Sangakpham, Manipur, on Thursday, April 17, 2014. The minor girl was raped by a 65-year-old man belonging to the Naga community in a forested area of the locality.
The Gorkha community of Kanglatombi took out a protest march and blocked the national highway on Friday, April 18, 2014, demanding the immediate arrest of the accused. The Manipur Police first used tear gas to disperse the protestors and then resorted to indiscriminate firing, in which a Gorkha youth, Tilak Poudyal, son of Prem Singh Poudyal, was killed.
The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh condemns the police brutality and demands immediate action against the erring police personnel. This sad incident is not an isolated one, only the symptom of a bigger scheme of intimidation, in which the peaceful Gorkha community has been at the receiving end of police high-handedness in the whole state of Manipur.
This follows on the heels of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) asking the Gorkhas to immediately leave the entire districts of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, and especially Langpih, in Meghalaya. A release had issued to the media in Meghalaya by HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw on Wednesday, described the Gorkhas erroneously as “illegal foreign settlers” who had “caused huge damage to our people in Langpih”.
The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh has apprised Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde of these events and has demanded that the Centre intervene to ensure the security of the minority Gorkha community in the Northeast. The Parisangh reiterates that the Gorkhas are bonafide people of India and have always strived to live peacefully and in harmony with all communities of the country. But time and again, they are subjected to physical violence and psychological torture that denies them their rights as citizens of India and leaves them insecure and unprotected. The Central Government must immediately take steps to remedy this situation in all ways it deems correct.
The Gorkha community of Kanglatombi took out a protest march and blocked the national highway on Friday, April 18, 2014, demanding the immediate arrest of the accused. The Manipur Police first used tear gas to disperse the protestors and then resorted to indiscriminate firing, in which a Gorkha youth, Tilak Poudyal, son of Prem Singh Poudyal, was killed.
The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh condemns the police brutality and demands immediate action against the erring police personnel. This sad incident is not an isolated one, only the symptom of a bigger scheme of intimidation, in which the peaceful Gorkha community has been at the receiving end of police high-handedness in the whole state of Manipur.
This follows on the heels of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) asking the Gorkhas to immediately leave the entire districts of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, and especially Langpih, in Meghalaya. A release had issued to the media in Meghalaya by HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw on Wednesday, described the Gorkhas erroneously as “illegal foreign settlers” who had “caused huge damage to our people in Langpih”.
The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh has apprised Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde of these events and has demanded that the Centre intervene to ensure the security of the minority Gorkha community in the Northeast. The Parisangh reiterates that the Gorkhas are bonafide people of India and have always strived to live peacefully and in harmony with all communities of the country. But time and again, they are subjected to physical violence and psychological torture that denies them their rights as citizens of India and leaves them insecure and unprotected. The Central Government must immediately take steps to remedy this situation in all ways it deems correct.