TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The North East Association-Goa, has hit out at the police for what they termed was racial profiling of their community especially in cases of crime and their consequent reporting in the press.
Referring to the recent case of a ‘raid’ wherein the police claimed that a “sex racket” had been busted in a Calangute club and that women and girls from the North East were rescued, the association has said that the kind of statements of the police and their reporting fuelled prejudice among Goans and made it difficult for the North Easterners to rent premises or get work.
“While the names of the individual girls are not given, by just writing about their ethnicity reflects racial profiling… No one wrote that the owner of the club was a “Maharashtrian,” so then why write that the women were from the North East?” said Wungchipem Pheirim the President of the North East Association Goa.
The Association also claimed that the women were picked up on a false tip-off. “The women picked up by the police were neither involved in any form of prostitution or anything remotely illegal. They were working legally and in several cases husbands and wives were working together,” said Pheirim.
They have also called on the police to make public the basis on which they conduct their raids. “The so called source of information on the basis of which the raid was conducted should be made public. It has come to our notice that certain NGOs are responsible for the raids so that they can get publicity and they never follow up. To the best of our knowledge, not a single person owning a beauty parlour or a hotel where such raids have been carried out at the instance of the NGOs has ever been charge sheeted or convicted,” Pheirim said.
“In the past it was proved that the police were involved in conducting false raids to make a quick buck. What needs serious investigation is the nexus between the NGOs, the police and the politicians who are all playing some sinister game, while the people of the North East are shamelessly being blamed,” said Pheirim.
