A day after 40 Manipur MLAs — Meitei and Naga — asked the Prime Minister to replace all units of Assam Rifles posted in the State with other units of Central security forces, 10 of the State’s Kuki-Zo MLAs on Thursday sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), requesting that units of Assam Rifles (AR) remain where they are.
Amid the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur between the dominant Meitei people and the Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo people, the former has accused the AR of being biased towards the latter. The Kuki-Zo people have accused the State police forces of being complicit in the violence perpetrated by Meiteis. This split has only escalated since August.
In a memorandum to the PMO, the Kuki-Zo MLAs said that the Assam Rifles’s credibility is known to everyone and that the tribals of Manipur have “unwavering faith” in the Central forces. They added that the AR had been working in Manipur for years and understood the “local dynamics”. Even though they have dealt with tribal miscreants “with a hard hand”, the Kuki-Zo MLAs said the AR had shown its single-minded resolve to save humanity through its unbiased conduct.
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“For these reasons, the Assam Rifles is being falsely blamed by Meiteis who are unable to execute their nefarious designs of targeting the tribals,” the MLAs submitted to the PMO, requesting that AR units not be removed from the State as demanded by “some biased Meitei valley MLAs”. They also asked the Centre to “control the State Forces, curtail their powers and give direction to not violate the Buffer Zones manned by the Central Paramilitary Forces”.
The 40 MLAs, which included Ministers and members across party lines, had also said that the demand for a separate administration was unacceptable to them, and had sought the implementation of the National Register of Citizens all over the State, as well.
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Widening divide
Ever since the ethnic conflict broke out on May 3, the hills-based Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal people and the valley-based Meitei people have been divided sharply, even at the levels of the police, the State government, and the local administration. Kuki-Zo people settled in the valley were driven back to the hills and the Meiteis living in the hills were forced back into the valley.
When the Kuki-Zo MLAs raised the demand for a separate administration following this ethnic divide, they had talked about their deep mistrust of the State police, with Kuki-Zo leaders insisting that no valley-based “Meitei state forces” should be allowed into the hills.
For almost two weeks now, Kuki-Zo people have been holding off a company of the State police from reaching Moreh by sitting along National Highway-102 near the Tengnoupal district headquarters.
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Parallelly, Meitei women’s groups, known as Meira Paibis, have been resisting the movement of Central forces, particularly the Assam Rifles, accusing them of a bias towards the Kuki-Zo people. The Army has also flagged the problem of being restricted by civilian protests led by women’s groups. Defence services sources have told The Hindu that such blockades are being fuelled by “inimical elements” spreading rumours against them.
On Wednesday, the women leaders of Committee on Mass Protest Against Assam Rifles, representing the Meitei women protesters, also met with Governor Anusuiya Uikey. In a memorandum through her, they too requested the PMO to remove all AR units from the State.
With this split deepening, there have also been instances where personnel of the State police have come in situations of possible confrontation with Central forces, with the latest one last week, after fresh violence along the Churachandpur-Bishnupur border led to five more deaths on August 5.
Within days, the 9th AR was replaced from a checkpost in the area with personnel of Civil Police and the CRPF. This was followed by the Manipur Police registering an FIR against the AR, for allegedly preventing the State police from discharging its duties.
