Kuki tribal members claimed on Monday that since new violence started on February 15, food supplies for the internally displaced people residing in more than 100 relief camps in Churachandpur had been stopped.
“For the last two weeks, the deputy commissioner has failed to distribute supplies, placing almost 17,000 displaced people at risk of famine. “In a memorandum filed to Home Minister Amit Shah, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) argued that the DC is threatening to starve individuals who have already lost their houses as a form of discrimination.
Following their request that the Churachandpur district chief and superintendent resign, the ITLF accused them of being accountable for the deaths of two people on February 15 when police opened fire during a demonstration.
Protesters, demanding the retraction of an order suspending a police officer, set fire to the DC and SP offices. In addition, the ITLF had threatened to shut down all government buildings in Churachandpur until the DC and SP left. However, the directive was later changed.
The Churachandpur internet service outage was extended by five days, and the ITLF requested Shah’s assistance in this matter on Monday. The Manipur government prolonged the prohibition, according to the ITLF, even though there were no further violent incidents after February 15. Even if business and other activities continued as usual in the Churachandpur area, it denounced the move as discriminatory by the “Meitei-controlled government”.
It said that in the Imphal Valley, where there have been many violent occurrences since February 13, the administration has not taken such action. The group brought up the February 13 weapons theft from an IR Battalion in Meitei-dominated Imphal East, the February 23 bombing in Imphal West, and the February 23 office fire in Imphal West.
Reiterating its demand for the suspension of the agreement with Kuki insurgent groups, the Coordination Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Modi on Monday. The group claimed that the groups had broken the agreement’s ground rules.
The ceasefire accord’s tenure ends on February 29; the Kuki tribes are hoping for an extension of that deal.
