annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Nagaland
Minister Manmohan Singh, both sides
reiterated to find a “mutually acceptable
and honourable solution”.
Despite cease-fire, highhandedness of
the security forces continued unabated.
The State government and the civil
society groups protested the extrajudicial
execution of Khandemo Kiran on 13
September 2004. At around 1 pm, two
Naga youth riding on a motorcycle were
reportedly shot at without any warning by
the Central Reserve Police Force
personnel at a checkpost at Merapani on
the Assam-Nagaland border. Khandemo
Kiran, who was riding pillion, was killed
on the spot. His friend, Lilamo Lotha, was
seriously injured and rushed to hospital.
Although the CRPF personnel claimed
that the youth were shot at when they did
not heed to their signal to stop at a checkpoint,
1 a spot verification conducted by a
High Level Nagaland Official team and
statements of eyewitnesses revealed that
the security forces opened fire without
warning. The deceased and his friend had
come from Bhandari to repair their bike in
a workshop at Merapani Seed Farm
Junction, just 400 feets away from the
61st CRPF camp at ‘D’ Sector. After
repairing their bike, the duo tested it by
riding about 200 feets towards the gate of
the 61 CRPF. When they made a “U- turn”
to return to the workshop to pay for the
repairing charge, a CRPF personnel
identified as Havildar Manowar Ram
Kumar standing at the road side fired
randomly at the two, killing Khandemo
Kiran on the spot. Even the workshop
184
owner testified that the killing was of
extrajudicial nature. The Nagaland Police
further alleged that the CPRF jawans had
washed away the bloodstain before they
reached at the scene. 2
On 2 October 2004 morning, at least
35 persons died and over 100 were injured
in two simultaneous bomb blasts by
alleged non-Naga armed opposition
groups at a railway station and nearby
Hongkong Market in Dimapur, Nagaland.
The platform was crowded with people,
including school children, waiting to board
the train to Bokajan in Assam’s Karbi
Anglong district, when the bomb planted
near the entrance went off. 3
There have been reports of killings in
the rivalry amongst different factions of
the Naga armed opposition groups.
On 27 May 2004, unidentified
gunmen shot at a well-known Civil
Hospital surgeon Dr Maong- wati Aier in
the hospital premises in Dimapur in broad
daylight. 4
On 18 October 2004, hundreds of
students from various educational
institutions protested at Phek against
targeting educational institutions and
innocent school students by cadres of both
factions of the NSCN. On 22 September
2004, a Class B student of Chokri Baptist
School in Chetheba was reportedly shot
while going to school. Another two
students of Government High School
Boys’ Hostel, Chetheba, were allegedly
physically assaulted, an elderly man was
mercilessly beaten and two school
buildings at Chesezu were damaged by