Expressing solidarity with the 14 innocent civilians killed by armed forces at Oting in Mon district of Nagaland, All Arunachal Pradesh Student Union (AAPSU) and North East Student Organization (NESO) jointly organized a sit-in demonstration and mass lighting event at IG park in Itanagar on Thursday.
Besides, AAPSU and NESO members, hundreds of students from different colleges and universities including students from Naga community persuing their studies in Arunachal also participated in the event. Holding placards and candles participants also observed condolences prayers for the victims.
Speaking on the occasion, General Secretary AAPSU, Tobom Dai demanded repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) from the Northeast.
Terming the Act as draconian, Dai said in the pretext of AFSPA many innocent people have been killed but Armed Forces personnel who are involved in such incidents are immune from all charges.
Influential leader @Tobomdai1 GS AAPSU condemning the Killing of Innocent civilians by Security Forces in Nagaland. NE Leaders should speak up against this draconian law.#RepealAFSPA@KirenRijiju @PemaKhanduBJP @sarbanandsonwal@TapirGao @Neiphiu_Rio @SamujjalBhatta pic.twitter.com/YHhBlrnX6r
— Prem Camdir Tallong (@PremTallong) December 9, 2021
“In a democracy, every problem can be solved with discussion across the table but trying to bring normalcy with the barrel of guns is not possible,” said Dai.
Today on this platform, we request our state government and Chief Minister to speak up to repeal the controversial AFSPA like the CM of Meghalaya and Nagaland, he said.
“We are not against Armed Forces, we are most patriotic in nature but we want authority to throw out the blacksheeps misusing AFSPA inside the forces,” the AAPSU GS said.
Condemning the incident, NESO Coordinator- Pritam Waii Sonam also urged the authority to immediately repeal AFSPA from the Northeast.