Imphal:

The Manipur government has decided to again operate inter-district public vehicles under tight security from Imphal to hill districts from Wednesday amid a lull in ethnic violence in the state, according to an official order.

This will be the administration’s second attempt to resume public transport service in 19 months in the state which has been witnessing clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki tribes dominant in Churachandpur and some other hill areas.

“The state government has reviewed the law and order situation in the state with the availability of security forces, response system and feasibility inputs from different agencies and has decided to resume traffic of public vehicles with adequate security deployment,” Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi said in an order.

Public vehicles will be operated from Imphal to Senapati via Kangpokpi, and from Imphal to Churachandpur via Bishnupur from Wednesday.

While Senapati is a Naga-dominated area, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur are Kuki-dominated areas. Imphal and Bishnupur are Meitei-dominated areas.

The “movement will be restricted to fixed hours only and general public desirous of joining the route are informed to contact respective offices of the Deputy Commissioners,” the order said.

“This initiative taken up by the state government is aimed at alleviating grievances faced by the general public in the state,” it said.

The state government appealed to the people to cooperate with the administration to this initiative and not to resort to violence.

“Anybody without exemption, if involved in acts which disturb movement of vehicles, will be sternly dealt with and prosecuted as per relevant laws of the land,” the order read.

Manipur has remained gripped by recurring bouts of violence since ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kukis erupted in May last year. At least 258 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless since then.

Public bus services between Imphal valley and hill districts also stopped at that time.

In December last year, the government made an attempt to run state transport buses to connect Imphal to Senapati via Kangpokpi, and Imphal to Churachandpur via Bishnupur. However, the initiative did not succeed. Almost empty buses ran between Imphal and Churachandpur while Imphal to Kangpokpi vehicles had to return due to barricades put up on the road by protesters.

Imphal/Guwahati:

A huge protest broke out in Manipur’s Churachandpur district after allegations surfaced that a shopkeeper tried to sexually assault a woman. The district administration imposed a curfew to control the situation.

The incident happened in Tuibong subdivision of the hill district dominated by the Kuki tribes, some 65 km from the state capital Imphal.

The shopkeeper, a non-local, was accused of trying to sexually assault a tribal woman, following which huge crowds came out on the streets seeking action against the accused.

The situation escalated when they blocked roads and set logs on fire. They also called a 12-hour shutdown that ended on Wednesday evening.

The protesters took out items from the accused’s shop and burned them on a road.

In the order announcing the curfew, Churachandpur District Magistrate Dharun Kumar S said the police gave a report raising concerns over the law and order situation in Tuibong subdivision.

Amid the protests in Churachandpur, a video of a masked man mocking a group of soldiers in the town also went viral on social media. The man was seen running towards the soldiers, who were standing beside an armoured vehicle, and gesturing to them he’d punch them. He did a few push-ups too. Others around him clapped and cheered, while the soldiers looked on.

A user on X shared the video.

A man in Churachandpur, Manipur, mocks security forces while others cheer. pic.twitter.com/cOuNb0gd6d

— MeiteiYekSalai (@MeiteiYek) October 23, 2024

Churachandpur is one of the districts included in the Kuki tribes’ demand for a separate administration carved out of Manipur. The Kuki tribes and the valley-dominant Meiteis have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation.

Imphal:

The army and the police in joint operations recovered a significant number of weapons and ammunition in crisis-hit Manipur today, the army said in a statement.

The joint forces conducted searches in the fringe areas in southern Manipur’s hill district Churachandpur, Thoubal, and Imphal East.

These operations underscore the army’s ongoing peace efforts in the region, with the demilitarisation of the local population as a primary objective, the army said.

In the first operation, a combined team of the army and the police carried out searches in the heavily forested upper reaches of Thangjing Ridge in Churachandpur district. They recovered two 9 mm pistols along with two magazines, a single-barrel rifle, two locally fabricated rockets measuring 5.5 feet and 3 feet, a modified long-range mortar, two modified medium-range mortars, four mortar bombs, nine rounds of 9 mm ammunition, 6.2 kg of explosives, and war-like stores, the army said.

In another joint operation, the forces carried out searches at Changbi village on the outskirts of Thoubal and Imphal East districts. They recovered two carbine machine guns, two pistols, a single-barrel gun, nine hand grenades, eleven rounds of small arms ammunition and other warlike stores, the army said.

The successful recovery of these arms and explosives highlights the seamless coordination between the army and local law enforcement agencies, reflecting their shared commitment to ensuring the safety and security of the region, the army said.

All the recovered weapons and ammunition have been handed over to the Manipur Police for further investigation and legal proceedings, the army said.

Imphal:

The Manipur government has asked the police to hand over the case of attack on the ancestral house of a key Thadou tribe leader and BJP spokesperson to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The state government in a letter to the police chief said the case filed over the attack on the house of T Michael Lamjathang Haokip in Churachandpur district, where his elderly parents and some internally displaced people live, should be forwarded to the NIA as soon as possible.

“In view of the serious nature of the matter, DGP (Director General of Police), Manipur is kindly requested to submit the proposal for forwarding this case to the NIA at the earliest,” the state government said.

NDTV has seen a copy of the letter.

Mr Haokip’s house was vandalised and set on fire in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur on August 31 in the third attack at his house since the Meitei-Kuki ethnic violence began in May 2023. The attack happened on a day the Kuki tribes held protests against Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who they said was responsible for the crisis, citing a leaked audio tape which the state government had called “doctored”.

Six days earlier, on August 25, over two dozen people, some of them armed, had vandalised Mr Haokip’s house and also fired shots in the air.

In a first information report (FIR), Mr Haokip had named 15 people as “directly or indirectly” responsible for the attack on his property and family. He also named two people who allegedly asked members of a WhatsApp group to kill him. One of the two promised to give “village land” to anyone who kills the state BJP spokesperson.

Mr Haokip has said the attacks and threats came as a result of him raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur.

READ | “Kill Him, Will Give My Land…”: Manipur BJP Spokesperson’s FIR Over Death Threats, Attack On House

Mr Haokip, the Thadou Community International (TCI) and the Thadou Students’ Association (TSA-GHQ), of which he is a key leader, have sought to draw attention to the tribe’s “inaccurate” reference by leaders and the media, and to spread awareness that “the Thadou tribe is distinct and any confusion with other tribes surmount to being racist, abusive, disrespectful, traumatising and it puts the Thadou tribe in poor light”.

“… There’s hope the perpetrators’ intentions and masterminds will be exposed, and justice will be served to all the victims of the horrible crime and injustice, including Michael Lamjathang, his family and Peniel villagers,” the TSA said in a statement on Friday, welcoming the decision of the Manipur government to hand over the investigation to the NIA.

Letter To Kuki National Organisation (KSO)

The TSA on September 15 wrote to the heads of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), seeking their cooperation in identifying suspects who attacked Mr Haokip’s house twice last month. TSA spokesperson Vicky Thadou in the letter said that Peniel village, where Mr Haokip’s senior citizen parents live in their ancestral house, falls within the operational area of KNO, and are dominated by KNA, KNFMC, KNF-S, KNF-Z, and KLA – the five constituents of the KNO.

“… We hold the KNO and the local civil organisations morally responsible for the attacks,” the TSA said in the letter addressed to the KNO president and vice presidents.

The Kuki National Front (Samuel), or KNF(S), in a statement refuted the TSA’s allegation and requested people to “stay away from this misinformation and blatant accusation.” “… The blatant accusation that the incident took place within the operational area of the organisation is nothing, but the act of tarnishing the image and reputation of KNF(S),” the KNF(S) said in a statement, referring to the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement.

The TSA in the statement on Friday acknowledged the KNF(S)’s response and pointed out that only one of five armed groups under the KNO has responded.

“… The fact that other groups have neither condemned the repeated terror attacks nor clarified on the matter only strengthen the suspicion of their involvement in the attacks, which would clearly amount to gross violation of the ground rules of the Suspension of Operations agreement between the groups and the government,” the TSA said.

The KNO is one of the two umbrella organisations of 23 Kuki-Zomi-Hmar insurgent groups that have signed the controversial tripatriate SoO agreement with the state government and the Centre. The other is the United People’s Front (UPF). The KNO and the UPF represent these 23 Kuki-Zomi-Hmar insurgent groups.

Broadly, the SoO agreement says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly. Every year, a joint monitoring group reviews the SoO agreement and decides whether to end or renew it. The agreement lapsed on February 29 this year – the same day the Manipur assembly unanimously passed a resolution asking the Centre to scrap the agreement. The 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs did not attend the assembly session.

The Manipur government has alleged some Kuki insurgents who are part of the SoO agreement have been participating in the ethnic conflict, thus violating the ground rules.

READ | End Ceasefire With All Kuki-Zo Insurgent Groups: Manipur Assembly Unanimous Resolution

Leaders of the Kuki tribes have also accused the state government headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who is from the valley-dominant Meitei community, of looking the other way when insurgents of the Meitei group United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF(P), allegedly participated in the violence. The UNLF(P) last year signed a peace deal with the Centre and the state government, after which its personnel came overground.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Imphal:

The Indian Army and the Manipur Police in a joint operation with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force recovered significant quantities of arms, ammunition and “war-like stores” in Churachandpur district, the army’s Spear Corps said in a statement today.

“The Indian Army, in a joint operation along with Manipur Police, CRPF, and BSF, had launched an extensive 48-hour operation, giving a decisive blow to warring groups in Manipur. These joint efforts resulted in the recovery of significant quantities of arms, ammunition, and other war-like stores in the Churachandpur district,” the army said in the statement.

Acting on specific information, in Churachandpur’s Maulsang area, the army along with the police and the CRPF recovered one 7.62mm AK series assault rifle with a magazine, three medium-sized crude mortars locally known as ‘pumpi’, and other war-like stores, the army said.

The army in coordination with the police and the BSF also recovered a modified M-16 assault rifle, one 7.5-feet country-made rocket, one large country-made mortar and ammunition in a thickly forested area south-west of Shejang in Kangpokpi district, the army said in the statement.

The recovered weapons have been handed over to the police for further investigation and disposal, the army said.

Troops of #IndianArmy, along with #BSF, #CRPF and @manipur_police carried out Intelligence based joint operations in general areas of Maulsang and Shejang in Churachandpur district in the last 48 hours and recovered one 7.62mm AK Series assault rifle, one modified M-16 rifle, one… pic.twitter.com/cpCmhBrgDj

— SpearCorps.IndianArmy (@Spearcorps) September 12, 2024

The operation marks a significant step in neutralising the threat posed by these inimical groups, reaffirming the commitment of the security forces towards peace in the region, the army said.

READ | Row Over Assam Rifles Ex Chief’s “Meitei Police, Kuki Police” Comment; Cops Say “Myopic Mindset”

Violence had escalated again in Manipur on September 1, following what the police said was a weaponized drone attack in Imphal West’s Koutruk. The police said they are considering handing over the case to the National Investigation Agency. The police are also investigating a “rocket attack” on Manipur’s lakeside town Moirang.

The Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), admitting the attack on Moirang, in a statement on Thursday said, “… The incident involved a retaliatory action by Kuki-Zo village volunteers, who used an indigenously made ‘Pumpi’, a type of cannon, rather than a rocket or a missile.”

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Manipur BJP spokesperson and Thadou tribe leader T Michael Lamjathang Haokip has filed a police case after two dozen people, some of them armed, burned a portion of his house and fired shots in the air in Churachandpur on Sunday night.

In the first information report (FIR), Mr Haokip named 15 people as “directly or indirectly” responsible for the attack on his property and family. He also named two people who allegedly asked members of a WhatsApp group to kill him. One of the two promised to give “village land” to anyone who kills the state BJP spokesperson.

“… Suspect the involvement of the fake Thadou Tribe Council (TTC-GHQ) leaders and operatives, who have made violent rhetoric and provocative statements,” Mr Michael said in the FIR.

He attached printouts of the WhatsApp group’s screenshots which showed the discussions to kill him. The police and the cyber cell will check the phone numbers with their service providers, and if needed will take help from central anti-terror cybersecurity experts, Mr Haokip told NDTV. He declined to give further details.

In the purported screenshot of the WhatsApp group chat attached to the FIR, one of the members had written, “SA (separate administration) will not be acceptable without killing LJT (Lamjathang) first, even if the central government is willing to grant us.” Another member wrote, “I promise to give my village land if anyone kills Lamjathang.”

NDTV has seen a copy of the FIR, which shows some phone numbers in the WhatsApp group.

Mr Haokip said the attacks and threats came as a result of him raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. He said it was the second time his house in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by those who do not accept the Thadou tribe’s distinct identity.

The police case was filed a day after a new video threatening to kill the BJP spokesperson and Thadou leader was shared widely on social media. The video shows a man in black tactical wear surrounded by three in camouflage battle dress carrying AK series assault rifles. All of them wore masks.

“Lamjathang, if you speak against the community one more time or disgrace the community, we will kill you whether you are in  Guwahati or Delhi… Meiteis didn’t differentiate between Thadou, Kuki or Zomi,” the man in the middle said.

The four men cannot be village defence volunteers who usually carry licenced single-barrelled and small-calibre handguns, a retired police officer in Churachandpur said, requesting anonymity.

“They can only be insurgents, and this threat can’t be taken lightly, as they are openly claiming they can kill a civilian anywhere in the country. This would not be the first time someone from Manipur is facing a threat to life even while living outside the state,” the retired officer said.

NDTV couldn’t independently verify the video, though some members of the Thadou tribe said the video and the dialect heard in it are genuine, based on what their own sources told them in Churachandpur.

The TTC-GHQ which Mr Haokip alleged is a “fake” organisation has six advisers, and 10 executive members, according to the last published information of the group’s structure. The TTC did not take the consent of four of them before making them members of the “council”. The four have given in writing that they were not aware of their membership of the TTC. They requested anonymity for fear of attacks.

“My father’s consent was not there. Clarification already given,” the son of one of the four people said.

Calls to the TTC’s publicly available numbers went unanswered.

The TTC has been condemning Mr Haokip’s comments on the Thadou tribe not being part of Kuki. The TTC has said in a statement that it is the mainstream Thadou body and affiliated to the Kuki Inpi Manipur. “… Appropriate action shall be initiated if they continued to misuse Thadou again in future,” the TTC had said in a statement on July 21.

In its recent statement on August 20, the TTC criticised a new Thadou body called Thadou Community International (TCI) as not genuine and formed by some people “to collaborate with Chief Minister N Biren Singh”.

Mr Haokip is one of the key members of the TCI, a group that claims to be a global Thadou tribe platform to look into critical issues facing the community, particularly in Manipur.

No one was injured in the attack at Mr Haokip’s house on Sunday night. Four families displaced by the violence in Manipur also live in four small structures at his family plot, Mr Haokip had said.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and other leaders had strongly condemned the attack. “…I consider this personal harm being put on one of our recognised tribes as a direct challenge to the unity and integrity of the state. Attacks on any particular community of the recognised tribes of Manipur, as well as the attack on the family of the BJP spokesperson, are condemned in the strongest terms. We will initiate appropriate legal action against the culprits,” Mr Singh had said in a post on X.

The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, one of the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice.
I consider this personal harm being put on…

— N. Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) August 27, 2024

The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes under the Kukis nomenclature – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Imphal/Guwahati:

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and other leaders have condemned the attack on the house of a BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe in the state’s Churachandpur district.

Over two dozen people, some of them armed, had vandalised the house of the state BJP spokesperson T Michael Lamjathang Haokip on Sunday night. They fired shots in the air and set two rooms on fire, Mr Haokip had said, adding no one was injured. Four families displaced by the violence in Manipur also live in four small structures at his family plot, he said.

“The attack carried out on the family members of Michael Lamjathang, a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalising his house was an act of cowardice,” the Chief Minister said in a post on X.

“I consider this personal harm being put on one of our recognised tribes as a direct challenge to the unity and integrity of the state,” Mr Singh said. “Attacks on any particular community of the recognised tribes of Manipur, as well as the attack on the family of the BJP spokesperson are condemned in the strongest terms. We will initiate appropriate legal action against the culprits,” he said.

The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice.

I consider this personal harm being put on one of…

— N. Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) August 26, 2024

State minister Govindas Konthoujam said the attack on Mr Haokip exposed “the mentality of those who, unable to engage in logical debate, resort to violence.” “… This cowardly act of violence against his home and family is not just an assault on an individual, but on the entire Thadou community and our civilization,” the seven-time MLA from Bishnupur said in a post on X.

1/2 I strongly condemn the barbaric attack on Thadou student leader & BJP Manipur Spokesperson Michael Lamjathang Haokip in Peniel village, Churachandpur. This cowardly act of violence against his home & family is not just an assault on an individual, but on the

— Govindas Konthoujam (@KonthoujamG) August 26, 2024

Mr Haokip on Tuesday said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. He said it was the second time his house in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by some people who do not accept the Thadou tribe’s distinct identity.

“Around 30 people barged in at 10.30 pm. They poured kerosene on the walls and burned two rooms. They also fired many rounds in the air to scare our neighbours and other residents in the neighbourhood,” Mr Haokip told NDTV. “Everybody in the area is angry at the attackers,” he said.

Mr Haokip belongs to the family of a Thadou tribe village chief, under whose area some 70 families live in as many houses. Apart from their main family house, there are four small structures on the plot where people displaced by the ethnic violence are living.

“The attackers also threatened the displaced people to leave,” Mr Haokip said.

The attack at the Churachandpur house of the BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe comes days after three MLAs from among the 10, who have been demanding a separate administration carved out of Manipur, clarified that they want their own tribes to be called by their correct names, instead of being associated only with the term “Kuki-Zo”.

On social media, the three MLAs have received threats of boycott and other “consequences” for allegedly weakening the Kuki tribes’ resolve to persuade the Centre to create a separate administration. One of the BJP MLAs told NDTV everyone should feel free to state facts about the tribe they belong to. “I fail to understand why threats are coming my way for simply saying to which tribe I and the people I represent belong,” the leader told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Mr Haokip is also a leadership team member of the Manipur-based Thadou Students’ Association (TSA) and the newly formed Thadou Community International, or TCI, a global body with professionals from the Thadou tribe living in nine countries including the US, the UK, Norway, Australia, and Malaysia, among others, as members. The TCI in a statement said the attack happened barely a few hours after Mr Haokip participated in a panel discussion in local media on the topic ‘Kuki supremacy and its agenda.’

“It was also an incident due to the fallout of relentless attacks on Thadou community and Thadou leaders by the Churachandpur-based Kuki supremacist-made fake Thadou Tribe Council (TTC), who have been actively engaging in disinformation campaign and violent rhetoric against Thadou, even boasting to know the perpetrators of the violent attack on Michael Lamjathang’s home last year,” the TCI said.

On August 5, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had met representatives of several small tribes and heard their concerns about bigger tribes trying to suppress their identities.

During the discussion and voting on demands for grants on the last day of the Manipur assembly session on August 12, the Chief Minister had said “violence was perpetrated by some, not all, people.”

“Not every Thadou, Paite, Hmar had a hand in the violence. You have seen, Hmar people spoke so well (in the peace meeting), we had tears, they too had tears, that all this happened due to misunderstandings,” Mr Singh said, referring to the August 1 peace meeting between Meitei and the Hmar tribe representatives in Jiribam, where they agreed to work for normalcy nearly two months after ethnic violence that began over a year ago reached the district bordering Assam.

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Over two dozen people, some of them armed, vandalised the house of a BJP spokesperson in Manipur’s Churachandpur on Sunday night. They also fired shots in the air, and set two rooms on fire, the BJP spokesperson T Michael Lamjathang Haokip told NDTV today. He said no one was injured.

Four families displaced by the violence in Manipur also live in four small structures at his family plot, Mr Haokip said.

Mr Haokip said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. He said it was the second time his house in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by some people who do not accept the Thadou tribe’s distinct identity.

“Around 30 people barged in at 10.30 pm. They poured kerosene on the walls and burned two rooms. They also fired many rounds in the air to scare our neighbours and other residents in the neighbourhood,” Mr Haokip told NDTV. “Everybody in the area is angry at the attackers,” he said.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh strongly condemned the attack.

“The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice. I consider this personal harm being put on one of our recognized tribes as a direct challenge on the unity and the integrity of the State.”

“Attacks on any particular community of the recognized tribes of Manipur as well as the attack on the family of the BJP Spokesperson are condemned in the strongest terms. We will initiate appropriate legal action against the culprits,” he wrote on X.

The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice.

I consider this personal harm being put on one of…

— N. Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) August 26, 2024

Mr Haokip belongs to the family of a Thadou tribe village chief, under whose area some 70 families live in as many houses. Apart from their main family house, there are four small structures on the plot where people displaced by the ethnic violence are living.

“The attackers also threatened the displaced people to leave,” Mr Haokip said.

We trust in God’s protection and guidance. Our parents and residence Phatthei In, Peniel village, have been targeted again for the second time by the armed miscreants amidst the Manipur violence.

We are lifting our prayers and many are standing with us in prayer for the Thadou…

— T. Michael Lamjathang Haokip (Thadou) (@TMLH4BJP) August 25, 2024

The attack at the Churachandpur house of the BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe comes days after three MLAs from among the 10, who have been demanding a separate administration carved out of Manipur, clarified that they want their own tribes to be called by their correct names, instead of being associated only with the term “Kuki-Zo”.

On social media, the three MLAs have received threats of boycott and other “consequences” for allegedly weakening the Kuki tribes’ resolve to persuade the Centre to create a separate administration. One of the BJP MLAs told NDTV everyone should feel free to state facts about the tribe they belong to. “I fail to understand why threats are coming my way for simply saying to which tribe I and the people I represent belong,” the leader told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Mr Haokip is also a leadership team member of the Manipur-based Thadou Students’ Association (TSA) and the newly formed Thadou Community International, or TCI, a global body with professionals from the Thadou tribe living in nine countries including the US, the UK, Norway, Australia, and Malaysia, among others, as members.

Right after the attack at Mr Haokip’s house, a video appeared on social media of a man showing a gun and a bullet and threatening to kill Mr Haokip, the TCI said in a statement today condemning the attack at his family home in Churachandpur’s Peniel village, 60 km from the state capital Imphal.

The TCI said the attack happened barely a few hours after Mr Haokip participated in a panel discussion in local media on the topic ‘Kuki supremacy and its agenda.’

“It was also an incident due to the fallout of relentless attacks on Thadou community and Thadou leaders by the Churachandpur-based Kuki supremacist-made fake Thadou Tribe Council (TTC), who have been actively engaging in disinformation campaign and violent rhetoric against Thadou, even boasting to know the perpetrators of the violent attack on Michael Lamjathang’s home last year,” the TCI said.

“This is the second time his (Mr Haokip’s) home has been attacked for being a Thadou leader, with the first attack with arson and gunshots by suspected armed Kuki militants on May 6, 2023, days after the Manipur violence broke in Churachandpur on May 3 last year. It is also to be noted that Michael escaped an assassination attempt on his life in Churachandpur on April 28, 2023,” the TCI said in the statement.

On August 5, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had met representatives of several small tribes and heard their concerns about bigger tribes trying to suppress their identities. Mr Singh in a post on X said the smaller tribes strongly condemned alleged forgery by a man identified as Paominlen Haokip, who allegedly used fake signatures of the smaller tribes’ representatives in a complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).

During the discussion and voting on demands for grants on the last day of the Manipur assembly session on August 12, the Chief Minister had said “violence was perpetrated by some, not all, people.”

“Not every Thadou, Paite, Hmar had a hand in the violence. You have seen, Hmar people spoke so well (in the peace meeting), we had tears, they too had tears, that all this happened due to misunderstandings,” Mr Singh said, referring to the August 1 peace meeting between Meitei and the Hmar tribe representatives in Jiribam, where they agreed to work for normalcy nearly two months after ethnic violence that began over a year ago reached the district bordering Assam.

The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes under the Kukis nomenclature – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Naorem Ibomcha Meitei, 43, was born in southern Manipur’s hill district Churachandpur. He and his family fled from this Kuki tribes-dominated area when ethnic violence broke out in May 2023. Today, Mr Ibomcha said, he saw a viral video of his four-storey house in Churachandpur razed to the ground in a massive, surgical explosion.

“Yes, that’s our house. We were a joint family,” Mr Ibomcha told NDTV. “In September last year, a friend in the aid services told me the house my family built had been demolished by the Kukis. This is the first time I am seeing the video,” he said, and choked up.

Mr Ibomcha said he doesn’t know when exactly the bombing happened, but it was definitely between May and September 2023.

The video shows the four-storey house being blasted surgically with explosives strapped to the pillars, indicating the alleged involvement of hands trained in specialised demolition activity. Some voices are heard talking in the Paite tribes dialect.

He said his family ran a licenced gun shop for eight years, until May 3 – the day clashes erupted – when Kuki rioters barged in, vandalised the store, and looted the weapons. Mobile videos and CCTV camera footage from the shop show the mob ransacking the place.

The gun shop owner was detained by the Assam Rifles in June 2019 while transporting advanced rifle scopes from the border trading town Moreh to Imphal.

#AssamRifles Battalion under IGAR(S) seized 16 Rifles Scopes of foreign origin at PVCP Khudengthabi, which were transported through Moreh into Imphal by a person named Mr Naorem Ibomcha Meitei, r/o Khumujamba Meitei Leikai Village, Dist – Churachandpur. pic.twitter.com/U0LO9eCsPt

— The Assam Rifles (@official_dgar) June 10, 2019

“It breaks my heart to see my home being blown into pieces. It is not just my home, but memory of my childhood and our forefathers. I have heard about ethnic cleansing, but never thought in my wildest dream that me and my fellow Meiteis from Churachandpur will be wiped out in this manner,” Mr Ibomba said in a statement shared by the civil society group Meitei Heritage Society.

Read More: Entire Colony Razed, Manipur’s Churachandpur Meiteis At Crossroads, Seek Justice

In September 2023 too, visuals had confirmed that an entire colony in Churachandpur where the Meitei community used to live was flattened and any sign of its existence erased. Ronald Meisnam, 38, who lived in Mandop Leikai, was horrified to see a flattened plot of land where his house stood.

Mr Ibomcha alleged the security forces could have easily stopped the mass demolition of Meitei houses in Churachandpur. “What was most heartbreaking was the security forces didn’t do anything to prevent this systematic demolition…” he alleged.

“The Churachandpur MLA, LM Khuate, is a former DGP (Director General of Police), and the DGP in May 2023 was another officer from the Kuki tribes, P Doungel. I am sure had they wanted, they could have prevented the demolition of my house and all other properties of Meitei families in Churachandpur,” Mr Ibomcha alleged.

While the Meitei community claims nearly all properties in the state capital Imphal, a valley area, owned by the Kuki tribes remain standing under the watch of the security forces, the Kuki tribes and their civil society organisations say their community suffered more casualties, lived through intense harassment and hounding by Meitei mobs when the clashes began. The Kukis claim nearly all their properties in Imphal were destroyed.

Many Kuki houses in Imphal have been occupied by Meitei armed groups, according to Kuki civil society organisations. “The Games Village in Langol has become barracks for numerous Meitei armed groups. We have visual evidence of gates marked with acronyms such as AT, UNLF, etc,” a Kuki leader based in Delhi told NDTV, referring to the Arambai Tenggol and the United National Liberation Front, whose Pambei faction had signed a ceasefire deal with the Centre and the state government.

Read More: Manipur Oil Leak Accident Or Sabotage? Some Unanswered Questions

Mr Ibomcha refuted the Kuki allegations. “If the security forces can protect the houses of Kukis in Imphal and other districts, why can’t they protect hundreds of Meiteis homes in Churachandpur?” he said.

An association of hundreds of Meitei families who have been living in Churachandpur since 1953 told NDTV that claims by some “misinformed Kukis” that Meiteis don’t have land ownership in Churachandpur, a hill area, is a “blatant lie”. The Khumujamba Meitei Leikai Patta-Dar (Land Owner) Association has alleged Meitei families in Churachandpur have been living under conditions of discrimination long before the May 2023 clashes broke out.

“For many years before May 2023, Meiteis and other non-Kuki communities living in Kuki areas were denied their rights, their faith mocked, and their way of life disrespected. Kuki miscreants would call names to Meiteis living in Churachandpur, deny access to markets, not allow Meitei families to run small shops, take goods by force and not pay, apart from two dozen Kuki terrorist groups taking illegal taxes from us,” Mr Ibomcha said in the statement.

Land Records

Manipur government records show there are 18 villages in Churachandpur that fall under revenue areas. The Meitei community living in these villages say they hold land “pattas” in the revenue areas, and so claims by a section of the Kukis that Meiteis have no land ownership in hill areas is simply not true since these claims ignore the nuances.

“Meiteis have been living in Churachandpur for decades before the land revenue law came. Their rights as legal patta-dars continue even after imposition of the law. And it happened that the Meiteis occupied the prime locations in [Churachandpur] town, so they were the first target of the cleansing,” an expert in Manipur’s complex land laws told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Manipur is geographically divided into hill and valley regions. The land system comprises surveyed and unsurveyed land. All the valley districts are survey land, and the hill districts have both surveyed and unsurveyed land.

“Nightmare All Our Lives”

“No one ever bothered to hear about our plight just because we were seen as the majority community, which is a big lie. All the Chin-Kuki and their ethnically linked tribes combined in the region outnumber every other community such as Meiteis, Nagas, Tamils, Nepalis, Muslims, etc. Being mislabeled as a member of the so-called majority community, but in reality living as a minority in a Kuki-dominated area has been a tragic irony and nightmare for us, all our lives,” said Mr Ibomcha, who family has been living in Churachandpur since the 1950s.

The ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administrative carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Read More: Exclusive – End Of Opium Poppy Cultivation In Manipur Soon? Satellite Imagery Data Shows…

Manipur BJP spokesperson T Michael Lamjathang Haokip, who belongs to the Thadou tribe, says there has been a lot of confusion between the terms Thadou and Kuki, or between Kuki and Zomi or Mizo, or Zo.

“A clear distinction between these terms needs to be made for the sake of clear understanding. Kuki is a colonial terminology, first used loosely by the British colonial power in 1777… Today, the term Kuki, often used out of ignorance, or imposed by the media and others, is rejected by most of the same tribal people who are mistakenly referred to as Kuki,” Mr Haokip said in a post on X.

Kuki has no validity; is non-existent and its meaningless reference has to stop

There has been a lot of confusion between the terms Thadou and Kuki, or between Kuki and Zomi/Mizo, or Zo. A clear distinction between these terms needs to be made for the sake of clear…

— T. Michael Lamjathang Haokip (Thadou) (@TMLH4BJP) July 21, 2024

“Since the creation of ‘Any Kuki Tribes’ and its erroneous addition to the list of Scheduled Tribes of Manipur in 2003, the term Kuki has become even more controversial and unacceptable – even by the Thadou tribe. Other cognate tribes within the broader Zo community do not accept the term ‘Kuki’ as they claim it is an imposed divisive term, and they even consider being called Kuki disrespectful and insulting,” he said.

Imphal/Guwahati:

A group of people who tried to forcibly occupy a flattened residential area in Manipur’s Kuki-dominated hill district Churachandpur were stopped by the police before matters escalated, sources said on Saturday.

Khumujamba, where many from the valley-dominant Meitei community lived, has remained a disputed, empty ground since last year after armed Kuki groups who call themselves “village defence volunteers” bulldozed all the houses.

The police said 24 people were detained and later released after they signed personal recognisance (PR) bonds, which under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) makes it a must for the accused to attend court or visit the police station whenever summoned, failing which action would be taken.

“After receiving a report in the evening today that some market vendors had gathered at Khumujamba area of Churachandpur district, immediately a police team rushed to the spot and cleared the area. The area is completely vacant as of now. 24 people were detained and released on PR bond later,” the police said in a post on X.

“A static police team is stationed at Khumujamba to prevent any untoward incident. The police will secure the area from illegal activities and encroachment as per Supreme Court guidelines,” the police said, referring to the Supreme Court’s order on September 25, 2023 which ordered the state government to protect the properties of internally displaced people and religious buildings.

After receiving a report in the evening today that some market vendors had gathered at Khumujamba area of Churachandpur District, immediately a police team rushed to the spot and cleared the area.

The area is completely vacant as of now. 24 people were detained and released on…

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) June 1, 2024

The ethnic violence that broke out on May 3, 2023 between the Meiteis and the hill-dominant Kuki-Zo tribes had led to massive destruction of properties in both the state capital Imphal valley and hill areas. Even after the security forces had taken control of sensitive areas, armed groups allegedly continued to loot and destroy properties.

Some members of the Meitei community from Churachandpur who are living in relief camps in the valley alleged armed groups in Churachandpur have been sending their “volunteers” to flatten the entire locality and erase all trace of the place having been an area where members of the Meitei community lived.

Sources said the group of people who came to the site on Saturday brought with them daily items to sell, which indicated they wanted to convert the former residential area into a crowded marketplace, despite knowing their actions could ethnic tensions.

Kuki-Zo groups have also for long been alleging that the state government led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh of the BJP, who belongs to the Meitei community, has done nothing to stop miscreants in the valley areas from looting and destroying properties of the tribes.

At present, the Meiteis are living in the valley, while the Kuki-Zo tribes are in the hills – with both not going to areas where each community is dominant.

The Supreme Court on May 24 had said it cannot go by sentiments and has to act as per law while scrapping a petition seeking contempt action against the Manipur Chief Secretary for allegedly not protecting the properties of internally displaced people.

Over 220 have died and nearly 50,000 have been internally displaced in Manipur. Most of them are still living in relief camps.