By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Shillong Press Club (SPC) along with ICARE would be holding a candlelight vigil at the old Assembly gate in Khyndailad in memory of the two youths of the region – Dana Silva M Sangma of Meghalaya and Richard Loitam of Manipur on Thursday from 6 pm.
SPC president David Laitphlang in a statement issued on Wednesday has urged upon the general public especially the student community to take some time out and join the vigil to remember the two precious souls who were compelled to leave this world abruptly.
Meanwhile, KSU general secretary Augester Jyrwa has informed that the KSU would take the issue of atrocities against students from the region in the meeting of North Eastern Student Organisation (NESO) to be held shortly.
He said that the KSU also condole the death of the two students (Dana and Richard) from the region who died under mysterious circumstances.
“This is not the first time that such kind of atrocity against students who are pursuing their studies in various parts of the country has been meted out . We cannot allow our students to face this kind of treatment,” Jyrwa said.
The KSU leader said that the people of the region should unitedly voice against the intolerable behavior against the student community of the region.
Meanwhile, the FJKGP and Lympung Ki Seng Kynthei (LKSK) have also come forward to condemn the atrocities against the students from the region.
“We would like to condole the death of the two students from the region who died under mysterious circumstances. As concerned mother, we would like to voice our strong opposition to the atrocities against the students from the region,” LKSK president Theilin Phanbuh said.
FKJGP education secretary Adam Balajied Kharmalki said that the federation is also deeply concerned on the atrocities against the students from the region who are studying outside the State.
“We also strongly oppose the ill-treatment against the students from the region,” Kharmalki said while condoling the death of the two students from the region.
It may be mentioned that Richard, a second semester student of the Acharya NRV School of Architecture in Bangalore North, was found dead on his hostel bed on the afternoon of April 18. On the night of April 17, he reportedly quarreled with his hostel mate Vishal Banerjee over watching an IPL match.
Another student, Syed Afzal Ali, intervened and hit Loitam on the face and head. Following the altercation, Loitam returned to his room and was found dead the next day.
Six days later on April 24, Dana Silva M Sangma was accused of cheating in her marketing research examination at Amity University, Gurgaon by the invigilator Suprio Ghatak who officially wrote on her answer script “found mobile phone in ON mode in Pocket.” Dana vehemently denied the accusation even as she wrote in her answer script, “I wrote my answers on my own. The answers were not copied from anything. I studied well for this exam.”
Both incidents have sparked off strong criticism from numerous quarters even as racial profiling of northeast students in mainland India has become a much talked about subject.