Hours ahead of the planned mass burial of 35 Kuki-Zo people killed in Manipur’s ongoing ethnic conflict, a Bench of the Manipur High Court led by Acting Chief Justice M.V. Muralidharan directed the State and Central government forces to ensure that status quo was maintained at the proposed burial site in Haolai Khopi village of Churachandpur district.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) said that it had decided to postpone the burial by five days, after requests from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Mizoram Chief Minister. However, the ITLF has also written to Mr. Shah, saying that it would go ahead with the burial in five days if demands for legalising the site were not met.
In a 6 a.m. hearing on Thursday — where there were no lawyers representing the Kuki-Zo community — the court further directed all law enforcement authorities to ensure the maintenance of law and order around the proposed site of burial, and directed all parties, including governments, to amicably settle the matter. The Bench, which also included Justice A. Guneshwar Sharma, also gave liberty to the Kuki-Zo community to approach the authorities for allotment of land for burial within one week.
The High Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by the International Meeteis’ Forum (IMF) on August 2, seeking that the burial be stopped as it would take place on government property.
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Volatile situation: HC
In its order, the High Court said, “Taking into consideration the potentiality of aggravating the already volatile law and order situation and the possibility of igniting a fresh wave of violence and bloodshed due to the gathering of a large mob from both the communities at the land in question, we are of the considered view that it will be in the public interest to issue the following directions as an interim measure.”
The Bench then went on to issue notices to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum and the Joint Philanthropic Organisations (JPO) — the outfits organising the burial — and posted the matter for the next hearing on August 9.
Inappropriate site: PIL
In its PIL petition, the IMF submitted that local authorities had held a meeting with the JPO in the last week of July to communicate that the proposed burial site was inappropriate. The Deputy Commissioner said that the site was on land owned by the Sericulture Department, while the Superintendent of Police noted that the site was close to the boundary between Churachandpur and Bishnupur — a buffer zone — and that the burial could create a “negative reactive response from the neighbouring district”.
The petition alleged that the proposed site of burial on the Sericulture Department land was vandalised and cleared out after the meeting ended inconclusively. The petition claimed that this was done by the Kuki-Zo community. The petitioner said that government land belonged to all communities and that it could not be misappropriated.
Meet tribal demands: ITLF
Meanwhile, leaders of Kuki-Zo outfits in Churachandpur told The Hindu that their insistence in choosing that particular spot in Haolai Khopi village was to assert that it was a part of Churachandpur and not Bishnupur as some Meitei residents have been claiming.
In an official statement, the ITLF said that since it was considering the MHA’s request and postponing the burial, it expected the government to meet its demands, which have been set out in a letter to the Home Minister submitted through the Assam Rifles.
The demands include the legalisation of the proposed burial site in Haolai Khopi village, the release of Kuki-Zo bodies still lying in the morgues of hospitals in Imphal, the withdrawal of all “Meitei state forces” from the hill districts, progress on the Kuki-Zo demand for separation from Manipur, and transfer of tribal jail inmates from Imphal to other States for safety.
Early morning hearing
After the IMF PIL was filed on Wednesday, the matter was mentioned before the Bench of the Acting Chief Justice, who had assigned the matter to a Bench of Justices Ahanthem Bimol Singh and A. Guneshwar Sharma. However, in the morning order, the court said Justice Bimol Singh had expressed his “personal inconvenience”. Therefore, the matter had been listed for Thursday, before Acting Chief Justice Muralidharan, who had also issued the contentious March 27 order directing the Manipur government to take steps toward granting tribal status to Meiteis, which had provoked widespread protests and triggered the initial violence in the State.
The State government’s lawyer then mentioned the matter before the Acting Chief Justice at his residence around 5 a.m, explaining the urgency of the matter, which was then taken up as an unlisted one. At the hearing, the State government was represented by the Deputy Attorney-General H. Debendra, the Central government was represented by a Deputy Solicitor-General of India, and the petitioners were represented by advocate M. Hemchandra and his team. However, there were no representatives of the Kuki-Zo community present.
‘Silent Naga support’
Meanwhile, the Kuki People’s Alliance, a political party with two MLAs in Manipur, issued a statement on Thursday saying that “the Kukis” were cognisant of the “love and support” from the “silent majority of our Naga brothers”.
The KPA added, “The time for unity of purpose and action has come and the doors are always open to our brother Nagas of Manipur to join us in our effort towards separation from Meitei subjugation; that we began this together on 3rd May as a Unity March; that our standing appeal is to join hands on resolving the matter.” The KPA had announced its support for the BJP-led government in Manipur after the 2022 Assembly election in the State.
