Northeast leaders call it race attack, say man from Bihar not targeted

Representatives of northeastern youths in Delhi have alleged racial discrimination in the death of Akha Salouni, a 29-year-old BPO employee from Manipur who was killed in south Delhi.

They have been unwilling to buy police’s version that it was a mere road rage incident.
They have questioned how Salouni’s 40-year-old Bihari friend escaped unharmed.

“There was no attack on the man from Bihar. The other boy (Dihe) from Manipur was also beaten. This is discrimination due to our appearance,” said Alana, General Secretary, North East Support Centre and Helpline.

In his statement to police, Dihe Kazheekrii said he and Nagendra Sharma fled as they feared that they too would have been killed.

But David Boyes, Convenor for North East India Against Racism, told Deccan Herald that when he read the FIR copy, he found that it was only an “ordinary statement”.

“In the beginning, police forced the complainant to give the statement without mentioning the details. I noticed it, comforted the complainant and told him to make the additions in the statement,” he said.

Boyes had a different version of the sequence of events.

“Nagendra was walking some distance behind the two Manipuris. The attackers bypassed Nagendra and particularly attacked Dihe first. Salouni interfered and questioned them after which they turned to beat him up. That gave Dihe time to escape and inform police,” said Boyes. “Police’s version is absolute nonsense,” he added.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, a representative from Arunachal Pradesh, echoed similar sentiments earlier in the day. He called the attack a “well-coordinated” and a “pre-planned” one.

Meanwhile, over a 100 youths from northeastern states gathered at Kotla Mubarakpur on Monday, some reaching there as early as 6 am.

Ever since 20-year-old Nido Tania’s alleged murder in February, they have been organising themselves and gathering as pre-designated spots by spreading information through phone calls, Whatsapp messages and Facebook pages.

It was no different on Monday. Some of them volunteered and brought snacks for the gathered youths whereas others handled media or protected Salouni’s sister from reporter’s mikes and cameras.

Even as Boyes was thanking them for showing their solidarity and requesting them to return to work or college, he told them to stay back as Rijiju was to pay a visit.

“The message you should convey to the minister is that it is a racial attack. Of the three persons, two were attacked. The man from Bihar was not,” he told them.