Manipur Violence

In the last 10 days, 10 people have lost their lives in the violence in Manipur, signalling significant reprisal of the strife in the northeastern state. Among those killed is a former serviceman. https://thewire.in/rights/manipur-violence-killings-internet-education 

The killings this time reflect the widespread nature of the unrest across the state.

The violence erupted on September 1, when bombs were thrown for the first time in the Koutuk Kadangband village. An alleged drone attack killed a woman and injured nine others, including an 11-year-old, igniting protests and further clashes, as people took to the streets.

The Manipur government suspended internet and mobile data services across the state from 3 pm on September 10, until 3 pm on September 15, 2024, citing concerns about the “spread of disinformation and rumours through social media”.

y. Ali

11/09/2024

Prime Minister Modi’s anathema for Manipur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLEpN2WLwr0 anto akkara
May 24, 2024
The nation is baffled by the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has not set foot in anarchic Manipur in a year. Modi who boasts about ‘great Indian democracy’ abroad remains deaf and dumb to the cries for restoration of normalcy and peace in Manipur. Modi who has made several trips to neighbouring Assam even went for an elephant safari on March 8 at Kazaringa National Park, over 200 kms from Manipur border without bothering to enter the simmering state. Is this the blunt message? “I don’t care” about Manipur.

https://thewire.in/communalism/ten-things-that-emerged-out-of-a-year-of-violence-in-manipur 

As per official records, the violence that broke out between the Kuki and the Meitei ethnic communities on May 3, 2023, has claimed 224 lives. At least 60,000 people in that border state have since been displaced; a large section of them still living in relief camps. Many have since fled their neighbourhood and escaped to Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya. With the loss of home and hearth, the future of such Manipuris, needless to say, is caught in a haze.

Meanwhile, over the last 12 months, the line of division between the Kuki and the Meitei leadership has only widened. To the strident demand of the Kukis for a ‘separate administration’ for them, the Meiteis have a standard answer – no division of the state at any cost. They have conveyed this to New Delhi too. 

Meanwhile, the general elections in that beleaguered state were completed on April 19 and 26 without the participation of the Kukis. The violence unleashed by non-state actors, both in the Inner and the Outer Manipur parliamentary constituencies during the voting, and the demand of the opposition to the Election Commission of India for re-polls at dozens of booths have only held up the fact that what Manipur needed first was healing and a conducive environment for conducting a free and fair elections. 

by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharot

04/05/2024