Two months after several Kuki villages were burned down and nine Meitei people were killed in the Saikul subdivision of Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, the villages remain inaccessible for journalists. Amid a storm of claims and counterclaims by Meitei and Kuki groups, reporters are forced to rely on selective leaks from security forces whose credibility has been seriously dented during this conflict. It is possibly the only region in Manipur that mediapersons are being physically prevented from accessing even though there are no official orders.
Today is the 110th day of the ethnic & communal conflict in Manipur, India. The state is in an open civil war, and has been effectively split into 3 zones; the Meitei-controlled valley, the Kuki-controlled hills, and the neutral Naga-controlled areas. A buffer no-man’s zone between the Meitei-valley and Kuki-hills is maintained by Indian Army’s Assam Rifles & Gorkha Regiment. Everywhere in Manipur, the gun rules not Constitutional law & order. Killings still occur, just yesssterday 3 Kuki youths were killed by Meitei and their limbs hacked off. That is the level of barbarism people have devolved into.
In the face of this absolute breakdown of the state, Biren Singh continues to be the Chief Minister of Manipur, Amit Shah continues to be the Union home Minister, and Modi continues to be Prime Minister. All ministers of ensuring conflict.
A police officer arrived at the spot but behaved in a hostile manner. “There are militants from Myanmar present there. They will shoot you down,” he yelled. When we asked who these militants were, he said they were Kukis. While there are no official orders banning anyone from entering these regions, the Metei village volunteers who surrounded us explained how dangerous it was to venture into the village. They pointed to bunkers uphill through binoculars saying that they belonged to Kuki militants.
In reality, the bunkers belonged to the Indian Army’s Gorkha Regiments (GR). When the mob began to grow in strength and it became clear that the vigilante group wouldn’t allow us to travel to Khopibung, we took an uphill road to the right which led to a GR bunker, where an officer confirmed that other bunkers too belonged to them.
The crazy amount of preschooler level disinformation is dumbfounding.
disinfo,misinfo, & propaganda are designed to be low-intellect. How else to trap the sheep?
The Meitei-majority Manipur police have long abandoned their duty and their oaths. There are videos of, them helping and travelling with the violent Meitei Leepun & Arambai Tenggol mobs. There’s a video of Kuki women being stripped naked, molested, and then gangraped by Meitei mob. The women have confirmed that the Manipur police, who they had approached for protection, had handed them over to the mob and also handed the brother and father of one of the women to be lynched and killed by the mob. So its not surprising that one of their policmen would repeat a Meitei lie.
