Imphal:

A global body of the Thadou tribe from Manipur has condemned what it called death threats allegedly made by a Kuki insurgent group that had signed a ceasefire deal with the Centre and the state government. The Kuki National Front’s (KNF) threat to kill leaders of the Thadou tribe is a clear violation of the ground rules of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement, the Thadou Community International (TCI) said in a statement.

A “historic” Thadou Convention was held in Assam’s Guwahati last week, where leaders and delegates of the Thadou tribe had passed a resolution and a declaration asserting the Thadou tribe’s distinct ethnic identity which also has its own language, culture, traditions, and history.

“Thadou is not Kuki, or underneath Kuki, or part of Kuki, but a separate, independent entity from Kuki… Thadou is one of the original 29 native/indigenous tribes of Manipur, India, that were all simultaneously and duly recognised as independent Scheduled Tribes of Manipur under the 1956 Presidential Order, Government of India,” the declaration had said.

In response, the insurgent group KNF in a statement said it was “angered” by the decisions taken at the Thadou Convention that Thadou was not part of Kuki.

“… For a tribe to declare that they are not Kuk-Zo is equal to saying they are a different people, like Tangkhul, Mao, Meitei, Pangal, etc. As we are currently still fighting a war, we don’t want to take extreme actions or kidnapping, death penalty, etc within the community,” the KNF said in the statement.

The TCI, which was one of the organisers of the Thadou Convention, in the statement alleged Kuki groups are dominated and run by Thadou-speaking people who have dissociated themselves from the Thadou tribe, but took up the “new fake tribe called Any Kuki Tribes (AKT)”.

AKTs was “fraudulently added to the list of Scheduled Tribes of Manipur in 2003 for political reasons. Kuki is not accepted by any of the non-Naga tribes in Manipur, except by AKTs,” the TCI said, adding the only Kuki that remains today is AKT.

“We would like to clarify the KNF statement where it states that for a tribe to declare that they are not Kuk-Zo is equivalent to saying they are a different people, like Tangkhul, Mao, Meitei, Pangal etc. The declaration of detachment and disowning of the colonial tag Kuki by Thadou is in fact equivalent to Thadou maintaining its distinct tribe status like the status of Tangkhul or any other distinct tribe,” the TCI said.

The KNF is a signatory of the SoO agreement. The ground rules say their personnel are to stay in designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

Sources in the TCI did not rule out approaching the Assam Rifles, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Manipur government to inform them of activities of the KNF that are in clear violation of the SoO agreement. They are also considering running a massive campaign to raise awareness about the Thadou tribe’s distinct ethnic identity, and to work for removing AKT from the Scheduled Tribes list, sources said.

Guwahati:

The Thadou Inpi General Headquarters (TI-GHQ) which says it is the top body of the Thadou tribe has rejected the formation of another body, called the ‘Thadou Inpi Manipur’, or TIM. The new Thadou body was formed at the two-day Thadou Convention held on November 1 and 2 in Assam’s Guwahati, an event which the organising committee billed as “historic” for the tribe.

“… The formation of the ‘Thadou Inpi Manipur’ and other bodies in the Thadou Convention held at Guwahati… under the aegis of the Thadou Community International is invalid,” TI-GHQ said in a statement.

The TI-GHQ said the ‘Thadou Inpi Manipur’ and other bodies were formed “without the knowledge and consent of the TI-GHQ, [and] it is contrary to the principles or provisions of the constitution of the Thadou Inpi.”

The TI-GHQ in the statement appealed to “all sensible members of our community” to consider the ‘Thadou Inpi Manipur’ and declarations at the Guwahati event “null and void”.

The newly-formed TIM in a statement on Tuesday said it will have a three-year tenure. H James Thadou, Michael Lamjathang Haokip, and seven others have been unanimously elected as president, general secretary, and executive members, respectively, it said, adding three advisers have also been appointed.

“TIM shall function as the legitimate peak body of Thadou tribe for Manipur, providing strategic leadership, coordination and advocacy. TIM will also spearhead, be responsible for, and coordinate movements and representation and all affairs relating to Thadous of Manipur and beyond as needed,” the TIM said in the statement.

The Thadou Convention held in Assam had released a 10-point declaration and a 9-point resolution. The declaration emphasised on the tribe’s distinct ethnic identity having its own language, culture, traditions, and history.

“Thadou is not Kuki, or underneath Kuki, or part of Kuki, but a separate, independent entity from Kuki… Thadou is one of the original 29 native/indigenous tribes of Manipur, India, that were all simultaneously and duly recognised as independent Scheduled Tribes of Manipur under the 1956 Presidential Order, Government of India,” the declaration stated.

“Thadous have always been known and recorded as Thadou, without any prefix or suffix to it, and it has been the single-largest tribe in Manipur consistently since the first census of India in 1881 till the latest census in 2011 that recorded Thadou population at 2,15,913. Any Kuki Tribes (AKT) had a population of 28,342 in the latest Manipur census in 2011, the first time Kuki was ever recorded in a census,” it stated.

Civil society organisations and a defence volunteer group of the Meitei community welcomed the formation of TIM to assert Thadou as a distinct tribe. Meitei Leepun in a statement said it gives “heartfelt appreciation” to the Thadou tribe for the new Thadou body’s latest announcement that it would support the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise if the Centre decides to carry it out in Manipur.

The Meitei defence volunteer group Arambai Tenggol – similar to village defence volunteers of the hill-dominant Kuki tribes – in a statement in Meiteilon said it welcomes the decision taken at the Thadou Convention to support the NRC.

Volunteer groups from both sides have accused each other of atrocities.

The Kuki tribes and the Meiteis have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation.

Guwahati:

The Thadou tribe in what its leaders called a “historic” event released a 10-point declaration to protect the tribe’s distinct identity and heritage amid the ethnic crisis in Manipur, the organisers of the Thadou Convention held in Assam’s Guwahati said in a statement.

Leaders and delegates of the Thadou tribe from across the country and abroad, and leaders of Mizoram-based organisations attended the event, the organisers said, adding they released a 10-point declaration and a 9-point resolution after the event.

The Thadou Convention’s declaration on the first of the two-day event emphasised on the tribe’s distinct ethnic identity having its own language, culture, traditions, and history.

“Thadou is not Kuki, or underneath Kuki, or part of Kuki, but a separate, independent entity from Kuki… Thadou is one of the original 29 native/indigenous tribes of Manipur, India, that were all simultaneously and duly recognised as independent Scheduled Tribes of Manipur under the 1956 Presidential Order, Government of India,” the declaration stated.

“Thadous have always been known and recorded as Thadou, without any prefix or suffix to it, and it has been the single-largest tribe in Manipur consistently since the first census of India in 1881 till the latest census in 2011 that recorded Thadou population at 2,15,913. Any Kuki Tribes (AKT) had a population of 28,342 in the latest Manipur census in 2011, the first time Kuki was ever recorded in a census,” it stated.

The Thadou Convention said it has decided to form several councils and groups following many rounds of discussions and deliberations. These are tentatively Thadou Inpi Mizoram, Thadou Chiefs’ Council, Thadou Human Rights Advocacy, Thadou Academic Society (TAS), and Thadou Elders’ (Upalom) Association (TEA).

READ | ‘Don’t Club Us With Others,’ Says Manipur’s Thadou Tribe, Waits For Peace Plan

The leaders and delegates at the Thadou Convention have agreed to place a demand for recognition of the Thadou tribe as a separate and distinct Scheduled Tribe in Assam, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

“The convention calls upon all, including government authorities, media, civil societies, academics, all other communities and international organisations, to correctly and respectfully identify Thadou as Thadou, with no prefix or suffix to it, to stop imposition of Kuki or referring to Thadous as Kuki, and to make the needed rectifications,” the convention said in the statement.

The convention also agreed to form the new body Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM) immediately, adhering to the Thadou Inpi Constitution as a unified top body of the Thadou tribe of Manipur. “This will enable Thadou to get back its original position of dignity and respect by all communities in Manipur,” it said in the statement.

During the two-day convention, the Thadou leaders and delegates in a statement said they reject and condemn “all colonial and post-colonial connotations and writings that gave rise to misidentification of Thadou as Kuki and continued imposition of Kuki on Thadou.”

“… The convention demands posthaste removal of the fake Kuki tribe (Any Kuki Tribes/AKT) – designed for any people from anywhere in the world – that came into being fraudulently in 2003 for political reasons. Removal of AKT from the Scheduled Tribes list is in the larger interest of the Indian nation and of the indigenous/native tribes and people, and this will do great justice and right the wrong, and is critical to solving or preventing related problems now and in the future,” the convention said in the statement on Saturday.

READ | “Kuki-Zo” Wrong Term To Describe Us, Say 3 Manipur MLAs From Different Tribes

The Thadou Community International (TCI) in an open letter on August 8 addressed to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had drawn his attention to the tribe’s “inaccurate” reference by leaders and the media, and sought his cooperation 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 Thadoi tribe in poor light”.

The TCI’s statement was significant as peace talks in violence-hit Manipur cannot proceed without accepting the genuinity of identities – though contested – amid the simmering tension between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes dominant in some hill districts of Manipur.

The Chief Minister on August 4 had said he 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 had 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).

READ | “Major Tribes Trying To Suppress Small Tribes’ Identities”: Manipur Chief Minister

“Representatives of various small tribes called on me to raise their concerns about major tribes attempting to suppress their identities. During the meeting, they expressed their strong condemnation regarding a complaint filed by one Paominlen Haokip to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), in which their signatures were forged, making them parties to the complaint without their consent,” the Chief Minister had said.

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/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.