Meitei civil society organisations raise questions over ‘targeted attacks’ in Manipur

Civil society organisations representing the Meitei community on May 28 raised concerns about alleged targeted attacks during the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur. 

The Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee (DMCC) and allied groups, including Meira Paibis, held a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi. 

The organisations recalled the attacks on 13 Meitei villages on May 28 last year, hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah was to visit the State.

In the Press Conference, DMCC made a Press Release and it says "On 28th May 2023, at the early our, thirteen Meetei villages were brutally attacked with sophisticated guns in three districts of Manipur ie. (1) Phayeng Khunou Freedom Hills around 1:30 am, (2) SingdaKadangband Part 1of Imphal East District, (3)Sugnu-, (4). Serou, (5)Wapokpi -1.30 am,(6) Chandonpokpi at 2.35 am ,(7) Kamson Tampak at 2:35 am,(8) Napat, (9) Tangjengb Ahallup at 2:35 am,(10) Yaingangpokpi, (11) Sanasabi (12) Shati Khongbal and (13). Gwaltabi of Bishnupur District at 3.30 am. In these brutal attacks, 12 Meiteis including two state forces and two kukis were killed and 44 people were injured. These coordinated attacks on Meeteis were carried out when high profiled General Manoj Panday, Chief of the Army Staff and East-ern Command Chief Lt General RP Kalita was stationed in Imphal. This visit of the Army chief comes ahead of the proposed three-day state visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on May 29. Was it a co-incident? "

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The ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities began on May 3 last year. More than 220 people have been killed in the conflict so far, thousands injured, and at least 50,000 people internally displaced.

The DMCC, in a statement, said the attacks on the villages in Imphal East and Bishnupur districts began in the early hours of May 28. 

Twelve Meitei people, two Kuki-Zo people, and two State forces personnel were killed in the attacks, it said.

Seram Rojesh, the convener of the DMCC, said the attacks were carried out even as the Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, and the then Eastern Command chief, Lieutenant-General R.P. Kalita, were in Imphal just ahead of Shah’s visit to the State at the time.

He added that several such attacks had taken place on Meitei villages and outposts of Manipur Police personnel and State forces despite public statements by top Assam Rifles officers promising action.

“Now, Meitei communities are asking if this is not a sign of siding with the Kuki militants, then what else?” the organisations said in the joint statement issued after the press conference.

Such accusations have been made by the warring communities throughout the conflict. While the Kuki-Zo people have alleged that the Manipur Police personnel and State forces were complicit in the attacks against them, the Meitei community has repeatedly accused the Central forces such as the Assam Rifles of taking sides in the conflict.

The civil society organisations in Delhi questioned why the violence in the State had been allowed to continue for this long, who should be held responsible for controlling the “civil war” like situation in the State, and why Meiteis had been selectively targeted, attacked, and isolated by both the State and Central governments.