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Escaped home at night: Manipur locals recount horror
At least 1,100 residents of Manipur’s Jiribam and surrounding regions have crossed state borders into neighbouring Assam
SILCHAR/AIZAWL For the past two days, 43-year-old L Muangpu, a Kuki tribal resident of Manipur’s Jiribam district, has remained cloistered indoors, increasingly afraid of the sounds of ethnic violence roiling the northeastern state creeping closer to his remote village.
At 10pm on Thursday, the fear hit home. “It took a few minutes to realise that we were being attacked. The mob was pelting stones, trying to burn our homes, and threatening us. They kept chanting, this is our final war,” he said.
By sunrise, Muangpu had made up his mind. In the afternoon, he fled the village of his ancestors, the only home he had ever known, and crossed over into Assam’s Cachar district.
Muangpu is one of at least 1,100 residents of Manipur’s Jiribam and surrounding regions who crossed state borders into neighbouring Assam, fleeing the violence that has besieged Manipur. Clashes first broke out on Wednesday after tribal Kuki groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the majority Meitei community. Violence quickly engulfed the state.
On Friday, acknowledging the influx, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Several families affected by the recent incidents in Manipur have sought refuge in Assam. I have requested the district administration of Cachar to take care of these families.”
Numal Mahatta, superintendent of police of Cachar, said that the migration into Assam began at around 11 pm on Thursday, and continued through Friday. Each of those who crossed over had a harrowing tale.
Twenty-four-year-old Vahcy Khongsai, also from Jiribam, said that in her locality, Meitei and Kuki representatives held a peace meeting on Thursday and said both sides would protect the other. “But when night fell, we realised that it was a fake agreement. They attempted to burn our homes. The men in our area risked their lives to protect us,” she added.
Khongsai said that army personnel did reach the spot but local residents chose to leave, apprehensive of violence spiraling once the troops left. “We are safe till the army is there, but they cannot protect us all the time. At midnight on Thursday, we decided to walk towards the Assam border, and crossed the Jiri river with the children and elderly neighbours in tow,” she added.
Residents of Churachandpur, a district where Kukis are in the majority, said that Meitei localities faced large-scale organised attacks. “On Wednesday, mobs burned down two villages. Over a thousand residents have been rescued by army personnel and they are now taking shelter in Moirang, “ said Yambem Laba, adviser to the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee in Manipur.
Another Meitei community member, 43-year-old teacher Joykumar Heisnam, said they wanted to move from their residence in Mizoram to Manipur because they feared retaliatory attacks. “We have taken shelter in Assam and will try to enter Manipur again,” he added.
A 29-year-old woman, who belongs to the Kuki tribe, had roots in Mizoram, but grew up in the Imphal Valley with her 65-year-old mother and 26-year-old brother. On Thursday morning, she saw a 300-people strong mob looting and burning their way up his street. It was at that moment, the family knew they had to abandon their home. “We were able to grab only our important documents,” she said.
To escape the mob, the family first sought refuge in a neighbour’s home. “There were 17 of us in that living room, and we locked the gate from outside and bolted all the doors. But the mob knew we were inside, and ordered us to come out of the door, and said they would torch the house with us in it if we didn’t comply,” she added.
The helpless family then watched as the mob first looted seven homes in the area before burning them down to the ground. “We called for the police to help up but they did not arrive, and we just stood there and watched,” she added.
Imphal airport was 10 minutes away and the woman booked flight tickets to get out of the state. But she suddenly found her phone snatched when she tried to take a video of the violence.
“I pleaded for them to return it because all my PNR numbers were on the phone. An old lady who was part of the mob gave it back,” she said. “But as she did, she told us never to return because we were all illegal immigrants from Myanmar.”
