PMO asks Asom to take action : Disappearance of two persons in Manipur

PMO asks Asom to take action

: Disappearance of two persons in Manipur

From our Staff Reporter

SILCHAR, Sep 1: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has recently asked the Asom Chief Secretary to take action on the basis of a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent by the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC) on July 18, 2009 regarding the disappearance of Paresh Das (55) and Dilip Das (45) of Nandan Kanan Tea Garden area under Jiribum Police Station in Cachar district, Asom, on May 25, 2009 from Tamenlong in Manipur.

The two used to buy damaged utensils and other household things made of tin, steel, iron etc from villages in East Imphal and Tamenglong districts and sell the items at Silchar in Asom. On that fateful day at 6.30 am, both the workmen left home for Tamenglong together and never returned.

The PMO informed the BHRPC by a letter vide No. 13/3/2009-PMP3/75979 on August 6, 2009, that it had already asked the Asom Chief Secretary to take appropriate action on incident.

The BHRPC informed the Prime Minister that the day after the duo had gone missing both the Jirighat police station in Asom and Jiribum PS in Manipur were duly informed about the incident, but no action was taken. The local people got worried and met the administrative and police authorities and urged them to find out the whereabouts of the two. Getting no satisfactory response, the people called a 36-hour bandh of the NH-53 on July 4. Hundreds of people supported the demonstration. According to witnesses, when these unarmed peaceful people were demanding the administration to take proper action by shouting slogans, a large number of armed paramilitary personnel from 72 Field Regiment of Assam Rifles camping nearby at Lalpani entered the spot and allegedly beat the demonstrators with sticks and injured about 40 people, including women and children.

Under the circumstances, the BHRPC urged the Prime Minister for his intervention to ensure prompt action to find out the missing persons, adequate financial aid and other assistance to the family members of the missing persons and an impartial investigation into the incident of the foray made by the Assam Rifles personnel into the peaceful demonstrators. The BHRPC hopes that the Asom Chief Secretary will take these and other appropriate actions to unearth the truth about the incident and to ensure rehabilitation of the family members of the two missing persons.

Source: The Sentinel

URL of the page that contains the report:

http://www.sentinelassam.com/state.php?sec=2&subsec=2&id=21029&dtP=2009-09-02&ppr=1