Hathras incident: Candlelight protests in Nagaland

Our Reporter/Correspondent
Dimapur/Kohima, Oct.4 (EMN): Candlelight protests were simultaneously held in Dimapur and Kohima on Sunday evening to protest the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl from the Dalit community at Hathras village in Uttar Pradesh.

She had passed away on September 29. The incident has provoked nationwide outrage.

The protests in Dimapur and Kohima were organised by the Nagaland unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

At Congress Bhavan, Dimapur, the president of Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee, K Therie, said that in ‘BJP-ruled states, there is no safety for women’. He added that investigation into the incident should be unbiased and deliver justice.

Besides Congress members, the protest had in attendance representatives of International Human Rights Council, Nagaland chapter, and NGOs.

In Kohima, around 30 people gathered at the Congress Bhavan near DC office, and lit candles in the area. They also observed a moment of silence for the victim.

The general secretary NSUI, Nagaland unit, Khrieketoulie Rikha, said that ‘this candlelight protest will be a big message to the government of India that a small state is raising its voice against the rape incident’.

He stated that this case is not being ‘given priority in the national media as it should have been’.

NPCC secretary Henmei Phom said that ‘rape cases occur frequently in India’ but the victims rarely receive justice.

He also condemned the police ‘for cremating the victim without the consent of her parents’. This act, he said, was akin to dictatorship.

The secretary further cited the Nirbhaya case, stating that the ruling government had then ‘supported the case’ and an Act was implemented as a result.

‘Today we are few in number but this can be a big spark for the Indian democracy,’ he added.

The secretary further demanded that justice should be given to the victim’s family, ‘as was the case in the Nirbhaya incident’.