Manipur violence: Kuki apex body condemns alleged selective justice adopted by state government

The Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki tribes is grievously horrified by the alleged groundless accusation of N Biren Singh-led state Government against the Kuki-Zo community over the killing of two students by ordering a military operation at Joujangtek village and adjoining areas by a combined team of Central and State forces which has greatly alarmed the locals amidst the incessant attack by Meitei militants.

KIM Information and Publicity Secretary, Janghaolun Haokip said that regardless of the validity of the accusation, the Kuki Inpi Manipur is utterly dismayed by the selective or exclusive justice meted out against the Kuki-Zo community by the Manipur state government.

While recalling the state government's commitment to take "swift and decisive" action against the perpetrators over the killing of the two students, he said it is greatly shocking that the N. Biren Singh-led Government has been deliberately remaining a mute spectator of the number of ruthless atrocities committed against the Kuki-Zo people.

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"This is a clear indication of the intensity of the targeted discrimination and oppression of the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur which has been in existence even before the violence broke out on May 3", Haokip asserted.

He continued that the accusation that the two students were allegedly kidnapped by armed Kukis is logically unsound, especially at a time when the state is clearly divided into ethnic lines prohibiting inter-regional travel between the meiteis and the Kuki-Zo people, and for that matter, the intention of the two students to travel into Kuki-Zo dominated areas, if true, at a time when ethnic sentiments of hatred, prejudice, and enmity are extremely high is altogether disquieting.

In fact, the Kukis will never learn to forget the nightmares of being chased and hunted like wild animals since May 3, when our brothers were mercilessly killed in the most barbaric manner (mutilated, burnt, beheaded), our women tortured, paraded naked and brutally raped, our villages attacked and our houses burnt, ironically under the nose of the Chief Minister who appeals for peace only after the most harm was done against the Kuki-Zo community, he added.

He also wondered where was the government when the Kukis were crying for peace and justice.

He pointed out that the decisive action of the Manipur State government to nab the culprits of the alleged murder of the two students while blatantly ignoring the untold sufferings of the Kuki-Zo people is to be seen by the rest of India and the world that the Manipur State Government is sponsoring the open persecution against our people.

While making it clear that the Kuki-Zo people do not condone any degree or manner of violence, Haokip said that in fact, the ethnic conflict in Manipur has been radicalized by Myanmar-based terrorist groups, and the state government on the one hand, and the Kuki-Zo people who are only struggling to defend our lands and our rights from the chauvinist Meitei on the other hand.

Nonetheless, the Kuki Inpi Manipur, as an organization committed to Justice, Peace, and Human Rights calls for Justice for the victims of the ongoing ethnic violence in the state, regardless of what gender, caste, creed, or ethnicity they belong to, he said before adding that KIM strongly condemned the selective or exclusive justice adopted by the Manipur State Government against the helpless Kuki-Zo people.