New Delhi: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on May 14 in connection with the recent unprecedented violence in the State.
The Chief Minister, accompanied by State Ministers, MLAs and State BJP president A Sharda Devi, rushed to Delhi on May 14 amid reports of fresh violence and repeated gun fights between the security forces and suspected Kuki militants.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh briefed Home Minister Amit Shah on the law and order situation in the State.
Last week, Chief Minister N Biren Singh chaired a meeting with 3 Corps Commander, Lt. General H S Sahi, on the post-violence situation in Manipur.
Officials say the violent clashes between two communities – the Meitei and the Kuki – and arson committed in several places across 11 districts in Manipur on May 3-4 have so far left 74 dead. Around 243 people have been injured.
Altogether 46,145 stranded people have been evacuated to relief camps and to some other villages.
‘Manipur violence to figure as a key issue in Mizoram polls’
Meanwhile, in Mizoram, the stage is set for November polls later this year along with Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has expressed concerns about the turn of events and violence in Manipur that has seemingly targeted Kukis. Last week, he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and also his Manipur counterpart, N Biren Singh.
The Kukis are also generally called ‘nomadic tribes’ in the North East as they reside across the region in substantial numbers. Kukis fall under a larger family of ‘Zo kindred tribes’ and thus share a strong ethnic bond with Mizos.
Over 5000 ‘internally displaced people’, including women and children, are currently taking shelter in different parts of Mizoram.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured Mizoram CM, Zoramthanga of all assistance and that necessary steps will be taken to keep things under control in BJP-ruled Manipur. The Zoramthanga-led Mizo National Front (MNF) is a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).
It is also worth mentioning that an estimated 30,000 Myanmar people, including a large number of children and school students, had taken shelter in this North Eastern State since February 2021, when violence followed the military coup in that country.
Moreover, sources said, there were also around 700 refugees from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts inhabited by ‘Zo’ tribes who called themselves the ‘Kuki-Chin’ community.
“Majority of them are Bawm and Pang communities. They speak a language quite similar to Mizo language and understand Mizo language,” a community leader said over the phone from Aizawl.
The Manipur fracas and unprecedented violence and displacement of tribals in such a large number have yet again rekindled the demand for ‘Greater Mizoram’ among certain sections of people in Mizoram and Manipur.
Ten legislators who have demanded a separate administration under the Constitution of India, in effect, belong to the Zo broad family, including Kukis.
“We may decide to demand a separate State, Union Territory or even be part of ‘Greater Mizoram’,” says Paolienlal Haokip, BJP MLA from Saikot assembly constituency in Manipur.
The legislators, in their joint statement, have alleged that the State of Manipur has failed to protect the tribal community. Ethnic Zo legislators of Manipur and civil societies of the hill areas and other leaders in Mizoram are likely to hold a meeting in Aizawl soon to take a final decision on the matter, sources said.
“Our people can no longer exist in Manipur as the hatred against our tribal reached such a height,” the statement from the MLAs stated.
The lone Rajya Sabha member from Mizoram, K Vanlalvena (MNF), has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Team which includes ‘Christian MPs’ to carry out an independent investigation into the recent violence in Manipur.
In a letter to Modi, the lawmaker K Vanlalvena requested that the Joint Parliamentary Team should be sent to the affected areas of violence and investigate the entire sequence of events “so that the truth may be unearthed and justice is delivered”.
Sources in Mizoram Government say the number of Manipur’s internally displaced people (IDP) has risen to 5,509.
Saitual district, which hosted 1,825 IDPs, has the highest number of them taking shelter, followed by Aizawl and Kolasib districts at 1,797 and 1,734, respectively. A substantial number of IDPs are also taking shelter in the Mizoram-Manipur-Myanmar border Champhai, Khawzawl and Serchhip districts.
The majority of them are homeless as their houses were gutted by non-tribal mobs that went on a rampage in the wake of violence that erupted on May 3 in Churachandpur and other areas.
Meanwhile, reports from Imphal claimed that Meitei villagers of Senjam Chirang in Imphal West have alleged that the pipeline for Senjam Chirang Rural Water Supply Scheme of Imphal West and the water source of the Sahirok River passing through Leilon Pheijang (Sansang) and Haraothel Village in Kangpokpi district have been cut off for the past few days by suspected armed militants.
