Manipur: 3-member special MHA team meets Meitei organisation, demand for NRC put up

The three-member special Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) team today met with members of the Arambai Tengol, a Meitei socio-cultural organisation, in Manipur state capital Imphal. 

The MHA special team, led by interlocutor AK Mishra, held two round of talks with the Arambai Tengol members. As per sources, the first round of talks took place yesterday after the team arrived in Imphal. Today also another round of talks were held between both sides where deliberations were made to seek a solution to the ongoing crisis in the state. 

As per highly placed sources, during the meet, the Arambai Tengol have put up the demand for conducting an updation of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) in Manipur with the base year being put at 1951. Another demand put forth is for the abrogation of the Suspension of Operation (SoO) with the hill based outfits. The third demand is to deport refugees from staying in detention centres in neighbouring Mizoram. The Meitei orgsaisation has also demanded to completely replace the Assam Rifles in the state with another central force. And lastly, the demand has been made to delist all alleged illegals in Manipur from the Scheduled Tribe list. 

It is still unclear which other organisations or groups the team would be meeting during their stay in the state. 

The special MHA team was rushed to the trouble-torn state days after violence rocked Manipur once again. Two police commandos were killed and several others were injured on January 17 after heavily-armed militants targeted them in Moreh. 

The next day, five civilians were killed by unknown miscreants in two separate incidents in Manipur, the police said. Four civilians were killed by unknown armed miscreants in Ningthoukhong Kha Khunou, Bishnupur district and one at Kangchup Chingkhong, Kangpokpi district. 

Manipur has been witnessing ethnic strife since May last year and more than 180 people have been killed.