New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) Students here from the northeast are planning to hold a massive rally in the capital Friday to protest the rising number of crimes against the community. A sensitization drive on the issue is also on the agenda, a Naga student union member said.
The latest episode in this rising trend of crime against the northeastern community in the capital was the gruesome murder of a Naga girl by a PhD scholar of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi Oct 24.

Luikang, president of the Naga Students’ Union in Delhi, said: “We had a meeting with other northeast students’ unions yesterday and have decided to hold a protest tomorrow at Jantar Mantar to bring to the forefront that the northeastern community is constantly being targeted in the national capital and the government needs to do something about it”.

“Every second day we get to hear of a northeastern girl getting molested somewhere or a northeastern student getting harassed. This bias against the community must be stopped. We are therefore also planning a sensitization drive on this issue,” Luikang told IANS.

He further said that members of the Naga Students’ Union have been invited by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), south Delhi, for a meeting Thursday.

“The meeting will be on the security concerns of the northeast community in the capital,” Luikang said.

Earlier the Delhi police had said that they had issued a circular to take the most stringent action in order to check crimes against the northeastern community in the city. Most northeastern students were however sceptical of the efficacy of the circular.

According to figures available with the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline in Delhi, around 100 cases of physical and verbal abuse, molestation, rape and beating of boys and girls of the region were reported in Delhi in 2006 and 2007.

Madhu Chandra, who heads the centre, said: “Until May this year, the centre had received 12 complaints of harassment, rape, physical and verbal abuse of northeastern people in Delhi”.

On Oct 18, two men reportedly tried to pull a northeastern woman into their car when she was on her way home in south Delhi.

On Oct 24, Pushpam Sinha, an IITian, who is said to be suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, strangled his 19-year-old neighbour, Ramchanphy Hongray, in her Munirka home in south Delhi. He then burnt the girl’s face to mislead the police.

Alarmed about the incidents, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said Wednesday that her ministry would formulate a plan to check such crimes against northeastern women in the city.

Luikang said: “Our main demand through the protest is that the most stringent punishment must be awarded to the IITian who was held for murder of the Naga girl last week. Also, all pending crime cases against the community must be immediately focussed upon by the police so as to act as a deterrent for others”.

According to him, more than 500 people are expected to join the protest Friday, which will include students from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and others.

“We just want better protection. Is that too much to ask for in the national capital,” Luikang asked.