AIZAWL, March 5 � A public apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was today demanded by a powerful student body in Mizoram for the bombing of civilian settlements in the State by the Indian Air Force on March 5, 1966.
The bombing took place after the MNF led by the late Laldenga declared independence from India and is observed as �Zoram Ni� (Mizoram Day) on this day by the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or Mizo Students Federation.
�The Prime Minister and the Union Government must tender a public apology for what the Indian Air Force and the army did to the innocent civilians in Mizoram in 1966, chairman of the North East Students Organisation (NESO), Samujal Bhattacharyya said at a function here.
Bhattacharyya pointed out that the Prime Minister had apologised to the Sikh community on behalf of the Government in the Rajya Sabha in 2005 for launching Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.
�If the Prime Minister, elected from the North East can apologise to his own community on the action of the army in 1984, he and the Union Government must apologise to the people of Mizoram for the atrocities committed by the Centre in 1966,� he said.
Bhattacharyya rued that no words of regret from the government had come even after 44 years. � PTI
