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.
