Manipuri Imas stage demonstration at Jantar Mantar; demands peace in Manipur
HY News
19 June, 2023 03:04 pm IST
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Various Manipuri Imas staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar, Delhi on Monday over the ongoing unrest prevailing in Manipur since 03rd May. Imas appealed Centre to stop ‘divide and rule’ in Manipur violence and demanded to restore normalcy in the state at the earliest.
Some placards read ‘Save Indigenous people of Manipur’, ‘Manipur Highway still blocked by Kuki Militants’, and ‘Why is PM Modi still silent on Manipur issue?’.
In Manipur, clashes first broke out on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organized in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. More than 100 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki community people.
The State government banned internet services in a bid to stop the spread of rumors in the State.
Meira Paibi of Manipur under the aegis of Apunba Meira Paibi Lup (AMPL), Thongju, Imphal, and Khwairamband Ema Keithel Joint Committee For Peace organized a protest today at Jantar Mantar. The protest was attended by more than a hundred Meira Paibi who have arrived in Delhi to raise their voices in the national capital as they feel that the Indian government has remained deaf and mute to the crisis in Manipur. Manipuri students and people from other professions also took part in the said protest.
A memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister after the protest. The Secretary of AMPL, Thoudam Inaomacha, raised many demands that included the revocation of the Tripartite Suspension of Operations with Kuki militants; the administrative and territorial integrity of Manipur be upheld by the Union Government; the implementation of the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) to detect and deport illegal immigrants from Manipur; the provisions of Article 3 of the Indian constitution that empowers the parliament of India to alter the boundary of a state be amended to exempt Manipur from the said provision, etc. It was argued that the conflict was not between the Meeteis and the Kukis, but external elements that used Manipur as their ground to push narrow and sectarian political agendas. It was an attempt to cleanse out the minority Meetei population from Kuki-dominated areas like Churachandpur, the border town Moreh, Dolaithabi, Sugnu, and Serou, etc., and it has been done successfully. However, in Imphal, the Kuki inhabited area i.e., New Checkon has been well protected by both the state and central security forces and there are Kukis still living in the area. The Meetei population in the periphery of the valley is constantly attacked by armed Kuki militants and is not safe anymore.
Many slogans were raised in the protest - Revoke SoO, No ethnic-based law in Manipur, No separate administration in Manipur.
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