Manipur: Kuki-Zo tribal bodies call 48-hour total shutdown demanding withdrawal of state forces from Moreh

The Committee on Tribal Unity, or CoTU Sadar Hills Kangpokpi and the Kuki Students' Organization General Headquarters imposed a 48-hour total shutdown in all Kuki-Zo-dominated areas in Manipur.

The CoTU's total shutdown will begin from 6:00 a.m of November 2 while the KSO General Headquarters total shutdown will start from midnight of November 1.

CoTU's Media Cell Coordinator, Ng. Lun Kipgen said that the committee is seriously disturbed to learn that the insurgents disguised as special commandos, burnt down several houses and vehicles, looted many houses including church offerings at Sinam village along Imphal-Moreh road.

He said that in protest against the anti-national activities of insurgents in the border town Moreh, the Committee decided to impose a 48-hour total shutdown in Kangpokpi district from early morning of November 2 from 6:00 am to 6:00 am of November 4.

Also Read: Manipur: Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal alleged terrorists along with security forces burnt down houses at Sinam village

He continued that the armed insurgents in Myanmar are a part of the anti-democratic alliance and are seeking refuge in Moreh.

"The attempt to reinforce state forces in Moreh is to provide a safe route for transnational entry of insurgents", he added.

He also said the committee affirmed that it shall launch various forms of intensified democratic agitation until our demands for complete withdrawal of Meitei insurgents and Meitei forces are met and any untoward incident arising out of this will be the sole responsibility of the head of the state.

Emergency services, Press and COTU units will be exempted from the purview of the total shutdown.

Meanwhile, taking strong exception to the continued stationing and additional deployment of Manipur Police Commandos in Moreh border town despite the Union Home Minister Amit Shah's assurance to withdraw all state forces from Moreh within three days during his last visit to the border town; and while the demand for withdrawal of the state forces in the aforesaid town has been gaining momentum following their excesses and total disregard to civil rights and liberties, the moves of the state government in forcefully deploying a convoy of 19 vehicles carrying Manipur police commandos and the Arambai Tenggol added more fuel to the fire in the already volatile situation, the Kuki Students' Organization General Headquarters, the apex student body of the Kukis, called 48-hours total shutdown in all Kuki-Zo dominated hill districts of Manipur from midnight of November 1.

Media personnel and medical emergency related cases will only be exempted from the purview of the total shutdown.

The student body stated that the Junta-like trigger-happy police commandos ransacked, looted and burnt down houses and vehicles belonging to Kuki-Zo people at Sinam village stretching along the Indo-Myanmar road in Tengnoupal district of Manipur.

In the face of police brute force and excesses upon innocent civilians, hundreds of Sinam villagers fled their homes and hid in the jungle in a bid to save their lives as most of them, including women and children got injuries while running for their lives in the dead of the night, it stated.

It also stated that it is also highly condemnable the manner in which extensive, all-out search and combing operation is being conducted by the state forces in Kuki-Zo inhabited Moreh border area wherein every male person bears the brunt of police brute force as they are beaten black and blue by the police commandos at will, let alone the vandalization and lootings of house properties.

No wonder that the prejudices of chauvinistic N. Biren Singh government has been manifested time and again with the convening of emergency cabinet meeting last night in which a whopping amount of Rs.50,00,000 ex-gratia compensation was sanctioned including granting of a suitable job to the next of kin of the slain Meitei police officer.

Contrarily, the Meitei-centric majoritarian government has not delivered a tinge of justice till date to the family of Onjamang Haokip, a Kuki-Zo Police Sub-Inspector who was shot dead by the Meiteis while he was in the line of duty, it recalled.

"Impartial justice has been abruptly denied to the minority Kuki-Zo community as there has been no fairness in delivering justice to the victims in the on-going ethnic violence. The modus operandi of applying different yardsticks to different communities-the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo in the sphere of granting compensation too, have emboldened and shed a clear, undiminished light of our total separation on ethnic lines!", it stated.

It also stated that the present crisis in Manipur could have been averted: (i) had the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah fulfilled his promises (during his visit to Churachandpur and Moreh on 30th May, & 1st June, 2023) to withdraw police commandos from Moreh within 3 days, & (ii) had the central leadership heeded to the repeated pleas and clarion calls of Kuki Inpi Manipur, Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal and Hill Tribal Council Moreh to withdraw state forces in Moreh in the interest of peace and normalcy in the area.

The Government of India has the bounden duty to withdraw state forces from Moreh which has been the long-pending collective demand of Kuki-Zo people without any further delay if more bloodshed and violence are to be avoided. Sheer militarization and/or deployment of more and more state forces in Moreh will rather escalate the volatile situation, it added.

In view of the Meiteis’ tyrannical misgovernance at this emergent war-time situation, the Kuki Students’ Organisation (GHQ) strongly call on the central leadership right from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to recall and withdraw all the state forces from Moreh thereby deploy competent and high-ranking Kuki-Zo police officers to be assisted by the central security forces in maintaining law and order in the border town.

The sincerity and seriousness of the central government in ushering a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for devising a lasting political solution to the Kuki-Zo people shall be revealed and tested in its dealings of the current crisis in Moreh, it stated.

The student body then demanded unconditional and immediate withdrawal of all the state forces and every Meitei police, IRB and MR personnel from Moreh while cautioning that in the event wherein any untoward incident (s) of violence occurred, the government shall be held responsible.