People in India’s strife-torn Manipur state say they’re “feeling helpless” as a fresh bout of violence between indigenous Christians and Meitei Hindus has disrupted normal life.
The latest incidences of ethnic strife in the troubled northeastern state bordering civil war-hit Myanmar have so far led to 20 deaths, including six women and children, since Nov. 7.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh said his government will “ensure peace and stability in the state” after an emergency meeting late on Nov. 18 with legislators from his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
However, a resident in the state capital, Imphal, said, “Chaos and lawlessness have become the order of the day” across the state.
“The situation is such that even the chief minister cannot venture out beyond the valley districts,” he told UCA News on Nov. 19 on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.
The valley districts are populated by Meiteis while the Kuki-Zo tribal communities occupy the hill districts. Singh is a Meitei and is accused by tribal people of siding with his community in the conflict.
Meanwhile, government offices, educational institutions, and markets remained closed in the Imphal Valley, including the state capital.
The state government imposed a curfew and an internet shutdown after an angry mob set fire and ransacked the houses of three legislators and attempted to storm the ancestral home of the chief minister on Nov. 16.
“We are facing an acute shortage of food items including vegetables, milk among other essential supplies,” said another Imphal resident.
He said the grocery stores and vegetable markets were closed. “People here are living in utter helplessness,” he added.
The chief minister announced that a Nov.18 emergency meeting resolved to launch a “mass operation” against Kuki militants reportedly responsible for the abduction and killing of three women and three children in Jiribam district last week.
Ruling party legislators also condemned the violence, including the killings of innocent people belonging to the Kuki-Zo communities in the district, which has become the epicenter of fighting between the indigenous Christians and Hindu Meiteis.
Singh said the investigations into the abduction and killing of the women and children, along with the other killings and arson this month, would be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the federal anti-terror agency.
A Church official based in Imphal said the situation was grim, but “we cannot even think of helping someone in need as it could invite the ire of rivals, and the repercussions could be very serious.”
He said the people in the hill districts at least have agricultural land to produce basic food items, but those in the valley were totally dependent on supplies from outside.
“The people in the valley are also victims of extortion from groups such as Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei group that wields extra-constitutional powers with the backing of the state administration,” the Church official, who did not want to be named due to safety concerns, told UCA News.
Long-standing tensions between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and mostly Christian Kuki people revolve around their claims over land and government jobs.
The unprecedented violence since May 3 last year has claimed the lives of more than 230 people and displaced 60,000, the majority of them Christians. Some 360 churches have been burnt.
The Kuki-Zo community leaders have urged the federal government to intervene and restore peace in the state.
The indigenous people, mostly Christians, make up 41 percent of Manipur’s 3.2 million people, and the Meiteis, who form 53 percent, control the government and administration.
source : uca news