The All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) has strongly condemned the bomb blast on January 25 in the heart of Ukhrul town sustaining serious injuries to four innocent civilians.
The student body stated that the "unprovoked attack", either with malicious intent to villainise the tribal community or to cause a climate of tension in the hill areas, if not checked with all seriousness, will not augur well with the tribal people in the future.
"It is lamentable that the consequential act of targeting civilians is an outright violation of human rights and a sign of barbarism", it stated.
Vehemently condemning the planting and triggering of bombs in crowded places and targeting innocent people, ATSUM demanded immediate solutions to end this menace once and for all and urged the perpetrators to end hostilities in the hill districts.
"Otherwise, there is a strong feeling that the attack was advertently committed so as to arouse in our minds the hysterias of horror and terror incidents the tribal people had once experienced in their own land", it further stated.
The tribal students’ apex body also demanded the competent authority to book the perpetrators of the crime and bring them to justice while conveying its hope that the government will compensate the four victims for the human damage caused by the bomb blast and bear all their medical expenses.
