The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on Monday strongly condemned the vandalisation and destruction of its office by a group of armed individuals at midnight of Sunday.
The same armed group attempted to murder ITLF spokesperson Pu Ginza Vualzong at his D Phailien residence that same night and ITLF vehemently denounced this action, stated a release.
“This act of uncivilised and perhaps fatal violence toward members of one’s own community in the center of our town is unacceptable,” ITLF stated. ITLF will not tolerate this heinous act and will not stop until the alleged offenders come out and settle with the ITLF as soon as possible, it added.
Meanwhile, the Zomi Students’ Federation (ZSF) general headquarters stated in a release that the armed individuals equipped with sophisticated assault rifles invaded its Information Centre at the Royal Academy, D Phailian, Lamka, on the fateful night of March 17.
Condemning the incident in the strongest terms, the student body stated that “this act of brutal and potentially deadly aggression against our lives and property is totally unacceptable and was a direct challenge to our organisation.”
“We are still baffled as to why some individuals or groups would target a well- established, specific organization like ZSF with false accusations. We have worked very hard to ensure the continued existence of the Zo ethnic tribes,” it stated.
Despite public pressure to hand over the two captured individuals, ZSF still believes in the ideal of “to live and let live” among all Zo relatives in Lamka and its outlying areas, it stated.
“For this reason, we have been very reluctant to hand over the two-armed individuals to their parent organisation for ‘humanitarian reasons’,” it added.
ZSF will not remain silent if the same act of aggression or invasion by one or more persons, groups, associations or organizations is repeated in the future, it said.
“We will give them an appropriate response with all the means at our disposal and without reservation,” it added.
Mention may be made that enraged cadres of the United tribal volunteers (UTV) had held protests on Friday night against the ITLF and Kuki Inpi for depriving them of their ration at Tuibong traffic junction. They had also imposed a complete shutdown of Churachandpur district on Saturday.
