Tribal body plans mass burial today, Manipur on high alert

The group said it would bury the “Kuki-Zo martyrs” at the S Boljang village near the Churachandpur-Bishnupur border around 11am

The Manipur police on Wednesday sounded a high alert and stepped up security in different parts of the state after the ITLF announced that it would hold a mass burial ceremony on Thursday of the 35 people who died in the ethnic clashes.

Smoke and flame billows out after a few houses were set on fire by miscreants in the violence-hit Manipur (PTI)

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) is an umbrella body of different tribal groups.

The group said it would bury the “Kuki-Zo martyrs” at the S Boljang village near the Churachandpur-Bishnupur border around 11am.

Even as the ITLF issued statements about the mass burial of the 35 dead men and women, the COCOCMI (Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity) group accused the Kuki groups of playing politics and said that creating a mass grave would provoke the sentiments of the people. Women groups also protested outside the Bishnupur deputy commissioner’s office demanding that the mass burial by the ITLF be stopped.

By late Wednesday evening, the state government had increased security and brought in more personnel from all paramilitary forces in the area near the proposed site of the burial. Personnel of the state police, Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Assam Rifles reached the spot.

“More security personnel have been brought to the area. Meanwhile, agencies are also in touch with both Kuki and Meitei groups and urging the ITLF not to proceed with the mass burial of bodies. Such a ceremony will fuel tension and break the fragile peace in the state,” said an official aware of the matter.

“Tomorrow burial will go ahead as planned,” Ginza Vualzong, a spokesperson of the ITLF, said on Wednesday evening. The ITLF in a statement also said that if any group tried to disrupt the event, they would be responsible for the consequences.

The COCOMI urged the Centre and the state government to stop the mass funeral and also accused the ITLF of building a mass grave at land owned by Meiteis and left abandoned. “The ITLF should not play with the dead. There is heavy security in the area. Hope the politics of playing over the dead is not allowed by police and government. The Meiteis took the bodies of their relatives and performed the final rites at their homes. Such a mass burial site will only fan tensions and not let the two communities live peacefully,” said Khuraijam Athouba, spokesperson of the COCOMI.

On Wednesday evening, the ITLF also wrote to the deputy commissioner of Bishnupur asking for security to avoid any untoward incident.

HT contacted the state’s director general of police, Rajiv Singh, but despite several phone calls and text messages, the officer did not respond.

Since May 3, the northeastern state has been gripped by ethnic clashes – primarily between the tribal Kukis, who reside mostly in the hill districts, and the majority Meiteis, the dominant community in Imphal valley – in which at least 150 people have died and over 50,000 have been displaced.

Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after Kuki groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community.

Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders.