Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Wednesday said that his government had detected 5,457 illegal immigrants in Kamjong district of the State as of May 7, out of which biometric data has been collected for 5,173.
Their deportation process is underway, the CM said in a post on social media platform X, adding that his government had been handling the “alarming situation” with “utmost sensitivity”. “We have been giving humanitarian aid to all the illegal immigrants who were detected so far,” Mr. Singh said.
Kamjong is one of the districts in Manipur that shares its eastern border with Myanmar. To the west of Kamjong are parts of Thoubal and Kangpokpi districts. Ever since the military coup in Myanmar and the subsequent actions of the junta, many Myanmar people living near the border have crossed over into Mizoram and Manipur due to their shared ethnic ties with the people of these States.
In March this year, Mr. Singh had announced that India had started deporting the first batch of such immigrants who had crossed over.
The latest remark comes even as the ethnic conflict between the valley-based majority Meitei people and the hills-based Scheduled Tribes’ Kuki-Zo people continues. The Chief Minister of Manipur has maintained for a year now that the conflict was sparked by vested interests due to his government’s action against poppy cultivation and illegal immigration.
The conflict has so far killed over 221 people, at least a dozen security personnel, injured thousands of others, and internally displaced over 50,000 people.
In his public posts on the conflict, Mr. Singh has consistently blamed “illegal immigrants from Myanmar” for sparking the current conflict, alluding to the Kuki-Zo people who are among those who share ethnic ties with Chin-Kuki communities of Myanmar. Mr. Singh has claimed that the number of Kuki-Zo villages had increased “unnaturally” from 1961 onwards.
However, Kuki-Zo village chiefs and civil society organisations have maintained that the increase in the number of their villages was commensurate with their customary traditions on setting up new villages.
Meanwhile, the Spear Corps of the Indian Army on Wednesday held an event to felicitate young achievers of the Manipur Super 50 programme, a youth empowerment project run by the Indian Army, the SBI Foundation, and the National Integrity and Educational Development Organisation (NEIDO). The Spear Corps said that six achievers of the programme — Sahid Ali, Oinam Ronenson Singh, Roshan Kumar Gupta, Honghsha Shelpungman, Ronaldo Yumnam, and Sashikanta Singh — who had cleared the JEE Mains 2024 in their first attempt were felicitated.
In addition, four local Wushu players, Tamphasana Devi, N. Bidiyasagarh Singh, Koijam Yaisana Devi, and A. Gracy Devi, who achieved accolades at the State and national levels, were also felicitated. Another Wushu player, Thomas Singh, was also recognised for his resilience in recovering from an injury at the Wushu Championship in February this year.
