IMPHAL, March 22: The Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) has said that the fierce arms confrontation occurred on March 19 at Guiteng in Khoupum valley between the Front and NSCN-IM was because of NSCN-IM`™s incursion into ZUF operational area.
According to a release of the Front, the NSCN-IM cadres intruded the area and grossly violated the human rights and peaceful environment which is, in fact, against the Naga customary and international human rights norms.
The release said as per the witness of the Front, the cadres of NSCN-IM were dictating and harassing the innocent villagers at their will by ordering to bring their domestic livestock, rice and other essential commodities without payment. The villagers were also asked to carry their items as porters to different places of their destination at gunpoint and made to stand as a watchman in different strategic location and asked to guard their camp in order to shield their lives. In order to thwart out the misery of the villagers, ZUF carried out an operation against them, it said.
It said in the operation, two of its cadres were shot dead on spot and another two were seriously wounded. In the aftermath of the operation, the cadres of ZUF also recovered one AK 47 with large quantities of ammunition and two common bags.
However, the release said the whereabouts of the two deceased cadres is not known so far but the two wounded cadres have been informed to have handed over to Assam Rifles by the Khoupum Village Authority Council.
The Front also stated that the NSCN-IM`™s usual anathema practice of hiding their deceased cadres, by burying in the jungle, without informing the family and public simply to conserve their wrong doers in the eyes of general public is not just a violation of Naga customary laws but all norms of United Nations Human Rights which the NSCN-IM most adored off, it said.
Prior to the shoot-out, there was a fierce confrontation between the two at various places in Zeliangrong areas and particularly in Khoupum Satudai conflict, two cadres of NSCN-IM were killed in an encountered but the deceased were buried in the wood, it added.
The jungle of Zeliangrong is fast turning a burial ground of the slain NSCN IM soldiers, it said.
The ZUF release highlighted that land of Zeliangrong and kin tribes have become the graveyard largely occupied by `non-identified`™ tombs.
The Front appealed to the Zeliangrong Frontal organizations, civil societies, indigenous faiths and churches to look into the matter. In addition, the Front also warned the Zeliangrong`™s NSCN-IM cadres to learn lesson that they were sent to die in the hands of fellow brethren merely to fulfill the undying interest of some vested officers of their own whose motive is to capture more power with mammoth greed, it said.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/zuf-claims-thrashing-nscnim-in-gunfight-at-khoupum-valley/