Imphal/Guwahati
The Manipur government’s move to shift the last of 10 Kuki families comprising 24 members from Imphal’s Meitei-dominated New Lambulane area to the Kuki-dominated Motbung in Kangpokpi district on the northern side of Imphal Valley has triggered a controversy.
Following their shift early on Saturday, the Kuki families alleged they were forcibly evicted from their residences, where they had been living for decades and did not move elsewhere even after the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur exactly four months ago.
A Manipur government official reportedly said the Kuki families were shifted as they had become “vulnerable targets” and they were provided “safe passage” to Motbung in Kangpokpi district, some 25 km from Imphal.
One of the volunteers guarding the Kuki locality, S Prim Vaiphei, claimed that a “team of uniformed armed personnel claiming to be acting under directions from the Home Department came to New Lambulane, Imphal in the intervening night of September 1 and 2 and forcibly evicted the last remaining residents from their homes”.
Some 300 Kuki Zo families living in the New Lambulane area had earlier left the place in phases since the ethnic violence began on May 3. “Twenty-four of us were not given time to even pack our belongings and we were herded into vehicles with only the clothes we were wearing,” Vaiphei said in a statement.
The Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki tribes, expressed strong displeasure over the “forcible eviction” and reiterated its demand for a separate administration for the Kukis. The Kuki body said it stood “aghast at the dastardly attack against the last of the Kuki Zo volunteers (numbering about 24 men) who have been guarding the houses and properties of the Kukis at New Lambulane. The volunteers were later escorted by security personnel”.
“There is now total separation of the Meiteis and Kukis..it is imperative that the Central govt should constitutionally recognise this separation at the earliest,” the Kuki Inpi stated
Former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram took to X saying, “This means that ‘ethnic cleansing’ is complete in the Imphal Valley that is dominated by the Meitei people. A state government presides over ‘ethnic cleansing’ and the central government claims that the government of the state is being carried on in accordance with the Constitution.“
Exactly four months on, the violence in Manipur shows no sign of ending. As many as eight persons were killed and 18 others injured in prolonged gun battles between the Kukis and Meiteis in different areas of Manipur, ravaged by strife since May 3 with over 170 persons losing their lives so far.
