KYKL(O) owns up to shooting AMSU president

IMPHAL, January 22: The Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, KYKL (O), has owned up responsibility for the assassination attempt on the All Manipur Students' Union, AMSU, president, Kh Gourashyam, on January 17, in a press release today. The organisation however said it hit out against the UNLF and not the AMSU in targeting Gourashyam. It said it had made this intention of hitting at UNLF sympathisers and members in the AMSU clear earlier. It said it had also appealed to the public to identify these elements in the AMSU and to have them thrown out so as to re-establish the AMSU as a pure students' body. The release said Gourashyam is an UNLF cadre in AMSU disguise. Despite knowing this, other UNLF elements in the AMSU are now trying to portray the attack on Gourashyam as an attack on the innocent students' community. On august 27, during a public meeting by the AMSU, the respected elder, who is often referred to as the father of social work, declared that without AMSU, Manipur would not have been there today. The release agreed with this, saying the AMSU played a very important role in its 35 years existence. The release said the AMSU is indeed the true inheritor of the revolution led by Neta Irabot. In the fight for preservation of self-identity in 1970, the anti foreigners movement in the 1980s, the agitation against the army operations in the late 1980s... the AMSU has always been in the forefront, it added. However, in 1997, the students' organisation was eclipsed by the UNLF and the latter has not released its grip on it as yet, resulting in the fragmentation of the students' community. Since then all AMSU elections have seen UNLF sponsored candidates, using UNLF money, jeeps and guns, the release alleged. Today, the AMSU has become a weapon in the hands of the UNLF, the release said. Hence, AMSU has ceased to be concerned about quality education although it pays it lip service. It has also ceased to be concerned about human rights, the release said. If AMSU was what it was it would not have been so unconcerned about the Malom massacre, Sharmila's hunger strike, or the Tamenglong massacre, it alleged. Instead today AMSU's chief preoccupation is to nab prostitutions in the hotels in Imphal and to oppose beauty contests. The release further alleged that AMSU is an extortionist organisation today. Students should be on bicycles. Where is the need for high-rise offices building and plush office rooms with revolving chairs, which are exactly what the AMSU office is today, the release said. The release said the KYKL is against the UNLF controlling the AMSU. It is a big loss for the society that this is happening, it said. The KYKL further warned that it will not spare any of the UNLF cadres and sympathisers working behind the mask of the AMSU. The release said the UNLF is the one putting the AMSU in its present predicament, and appealed to parents to guide their wards away from bad company they are keeping. If the KYLK wanted to destroy the AMSU, it could have planted a bomb it headquarters like it did at the Pan Manipur Youth League office, when it came to kill Gourashyam, but it did not do so because it was not against the AMSU, the release said. It could have also killed those present in the AMSU office on the day it shot Gourashyam, the release added.