SHUTDOWN OBSERVED AGAINST MANIPUR GOVERNMENT’S “MISINFORMATION PEDDLING”; ATTACK ON MONGBUNG VILLAGE
The 24-hour shutdown called by various Kuki, Zomi and Hmar civil society organisations against “misinformation peddling” by the State government ended yesterday. The shutdown across the Zo-inhabited districts also comes amid fears of violence in the backdrop of the contention of Meitei secessionist groups over the State merger agreement.
The Zo-inhabited districts came to a halt on Friday and Saturday, as commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed across Lamka (Churachandpur) and Kanggui (Kangpokpi). The movement of commercial and private vehicles throughout the districts and along the interdistrict road connecting Lamka and Kanggui were also restricted. However, emergency and essential services remained operational. While the two towns bore a deserted look, Zo villages near the foothills and buffer zones were in a precarious and uneasy state due to apprehensions of hostilities from across the buffer zone, following the now retracted security report originating from the Chief Ministers’ Office.
While security forces were put on alert, the shutdown saw no untoward incidents in Lamka and Kangpokpi, except for an attack around Mongbung village in Jiribam district by suspected Meitei militants. The militants are reported to have fired from the surrounding forested areas. Till the filing of this report, no casualty was reported. Mongbung village is located a few kilometres from Jiribam town, which has been embroiled in violence since September last year.
Earlier on Thursday, the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) submitted a memorandum to the Union Home Minister through Deputy Commissioner Kangpokpi, protesting the recent “leaked” report originating from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) claiming the infiltration of 900 well-trained “Kuki militants” from Myanmar to “launch multiple coordinated attacks on Meitei villages around September 28”. “The shutdown is necessitated by the need to demonstrate against not only the circulation of fake news to defame and vilify the Zo (Zomi-Kuki-Hmar) people and to project them as militants but as a precaution against the true intentions of the state government and Armed Meitei Groups who intend to use the fake news as a pretext to launch well planned and large scale attacks in the Hill Districts inhabited by the Zo people”, the Zomi Students’ Federation had said in a release on Friday.
Oddly, the report was retracted by the CMO and the Security Advisor, citing that “any such misadventures by armed groups is minimal and unsubstantiated.” Before the retraction, the Indian army had also requested information from the security advisor as the claim had “serious security implications” and so that “appropriate necessary action can be taken at the earliest” suggesting that even the central security establishment is unaware of the basis for making the report. The possibility of discreetly moving a 900-strong force with sophisticated weaponry undetected by the huge central security presence at the borders and the claims of narcoterrorism is also highly doubted by commentators and experts familiar with society, politics and the security situation of the region. In another instance, on September 25, 2024, another Police dispatch claimed it is “reliably learnt” that the Kuki National Army (KNA) will be escourting “arms, ammunition and drugs” from Myanmar.
Tribal organisations strongly reacted against what they claim is the State government’s use of misinformation to raise tension in the State. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum and Kuki Inpi also slammed the Manipur government for coming up with a report which it could not substantiate. Yesterday, a CSO leader from Lamka informed Fieldnotes of the apprehension that the “misinformation” was a “conscious and elaborate” attempt to shift attention from the alleged leaked audio tapes of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, which contained claims of him orchestrating and fuelling the ethnic violence. He also claimed that it was done to tarnish the reputation of central security forces deployed in the State.
A Month of Disquiet
The past few weeks have been a period of disquiet and tension, with reported incidences of violence in villages along the buffer zones between the two communities. The State police and establishment have made a series of allegations that the Kukis are using hi-tech drones for dropping bombs, which central security sources familiar with the ground denied.
In addition, the apprehension of the Zo tribals of an imminent “scheme” of hostilities is heightened by the circumstances of the Manipur merger agreement signed between the Meitei Maharaja Bodh Chandra Singh and the Government of India on September 21, 1949. The agreement came into effect on October 15, the same year. Meitei secessionist militants have since observed October 15 as “National Black Day”, to honour their determination for the “sovereignty” of Manipur. It has since been a yearly tradition for secessionist militant groups to enforce total shutdowns on these days, often accompanied by incidents of violence.
This year too, the National Revolutionary Front Manipur (NRFM) has called a 24-hour bandh on September 21. A statement issued by the organisation’s Secy. I&P, Sanajaoba Meitei, reaffirmed its commitment to the sovereignty of Manipur. The NRFM was formed on September 11, 2011, by factions of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), a secessionist Meitei militant group, whose functionaries had operated from militant bases in Myanmar in the past.
A majority of the secessionist militants are reported to have been ousted from their bases in Myanmar since the pro-democratic uprising and are believed to be currently lodged in new camps across fringes of the Imphal valley becoming a serious internal security concern in the already volatile State.
Saikot A/C MLA- Shri Paolienlal Haokip (BJP) criticised the government of Manipur on X for spreading misinformation on highly charged security issues. The legislator termed the intentional spread of the misinformation as a means to deflect attention from the alleged leaked audio tapes of the Chief Minister of Manipur incriminating himself as the perpetrator of the ethnic violence in the State.