AAPSU demands release of six hostages from Shanti Vahini

Itanagar, Oct 6 (UNI) The All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) has flayed the abduction of six Mishmi people by Shanti Vahini, an underground wing of Chakma refugees from Kathan village in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday.

According to AAPSU general secretary Ojing Tashing here today that the six people were allegedly taken away by the Santhi Vahini cadres along with hundred workers at the gun point, when they had gone there to take stock of the demarcation of Namdhapa reserved forest. Later armed Chakmas released all the captive people except the six, whose whereabouts were still unknown, he informed.

The AAPSU secretary alleged that the Chakma and Hajong militant wing unlawfully encroached Namdapha Wildlife Sanctuary in Changlang district when people were 'protesting' against the settlement of Chakmas inside the Sanctuary by illegally encroaching into it since several years.

Accusing central and state governments of doing nothing to solve the vexed Chakma-Hajong issue and protect the rights of the indigenous people which the union had been raising for long, he said. Tashing also highlighted a few past incidents involving the Chakma-Hajong communities, like the murder of a circle officer in 1986, the attack on a forest range officer in 1997, and the attack on the Diyun zilla parishad member in 2003.

The apex students' union demanded the early and safe passage of the captives and warned the Chakmas and Hajong to mend their ways.

The union demanded that the state government should initiate necessary steps for evicting all illegal encroachers from the Namdapha sanctuary within 30 days. The AAPSU further demanded a solution from the state and central governments within a month failing which the union will launch a democratic movement, the secretary added.

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