Red Salute to Comrade Langtuk Phangcho
Comrade Langtuk Phanghcho is no more. The coward forces that had kidnapped him on 22 October 2006 could not overpower his courage of ideological conviction and eventually resorted to killing him in a most brutal fashion. His body was finally traced in a decomposed state on 1 March 2007 in an interior hilly area of North Cachhar Hills bordering Meghalaya.
Party Central Committee strongly condemns the heinous killing of Com. Langtuk Phanghcho and shares the grief of his wife Dr. Lalita Ronghangpi, three Children and his countless comrades and friends in NC Hills, Karbi Anglong and all over Assam.
Reactionary forces have always sought to suppress peoples movements and intimidate people by killing revolutionary leaders. Since its inception the CPI(ML)’s way of advance has been paved and illumined by the martyrdom of hundreds of leaders. Together with martyr Comrade Gobinda Teli of Tripura, and Comrade Anil Barua of Assam martyr Comrade Langtuk will remain a shining star in our Party history in the North-East.
Com. Langtuk hailed from a Karbi family from Bordokhindong village, in a Karbi dominated pocket of NC Hills district of Assam. As an enlightened youth educated from NE Hills university, Shillong he joined the autonomous state movement in the early 90’s and subsequently became member of CPI(ML) starting from a grass-root fighter of tribal autonomy movement he gradually emerged as an outstanding communist activist and leader. He was quite alive to the danger of walking into the ruling class trap which repeatedly disrupted the fighting unity of the tribal people and trapped many leaders and activist in the morass of corruption, political surrender and degeneration. Through living experiences and study of the ongoing struggle of NE region he developed a firm conviction that without a militant consolidation of communists the tribal autonomous movement could not be sustained or developed in the face of the political and military assault of the state.
Although Com. Langtuk had joined the movement in its high tide when many comrades became preoccupied with the affairs of the autonomous council, he was never infected by the virus of political careerism or hankering after power and the spoils of office. In the face of the renegacy, desertion and split in 2000, he stood like a rock to defend party principles and party organisation. When split was followed by growing attacks on our activists and people, let loose by the surrendered insurgent groups like UPDS or DHD in Karbi Anglang & NC Hills, Com. Langtuk again played an outstanding role in developing resolute mass resistance against this terror campaign. As a National Councillor of All India Agricultural Labour Association (AIALA) and leader of KANKIS, he devoted himself to organising rural labour as the core for strengthening the autonomous movement and democratic awakening of the tribal people further.
Despite repeated requests to every high office of the country, including the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Governor, and the Chief Minister of Assam, and the concerns expressed by the people at large in all possible democratic means, the state machinery maintained a peculiar and conspicuous silence and apathy. Comrade Langtuk was left to be brutally murdered by his kidnappers who are ‘officially’ under the cease-fire agreement with the Govt. of India. This has once again exposed the shameful and tacit nexus of reactionary forces and the state against the forces holding high the flag of democracy and people’s struggles. We strongly feel that com. Langtuk’s martyrdom would add a new chapter in our glorious history of self sacrifices and dedication. It would certainly contribute in developing the ideological and political resolve of our party in the hill districts of Assam.
Let us avenge the heinous killing of Com. Langtuk by foiling the conspiracy of the Indian ruling classes and raising the genuine democratic awakening of tribal people in Assam and NE India to new heights.