In Manipur, Kuki woman’s murder leads to shutdown
It has been two years since ethnic violence in Manipur left the state in shambles. The state is once again in turmoil after a Kuki woman was killed in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Thursday, just hours after a gunshot injured a Meitei farmer.
The state, which is already under President’s Rule, has witnessed a shutdown after tribal organisations called for it.
Speaking about the shooting of the Meitei farmer, Manipur Police, in a statement issued late in the evening, said Ningthoujam Biren Singh, a cultivator from Phubala Awang Maning Leikai in Bishnupur district, was shot in the left arm by an unknown armed miscreant around 3 p.m. while working in his paddy field.
He was taken to the District Hospital, from where he was referred to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal, about 30 km away. His condition is reported to be stable.
Markets and business establishments remained closed, while vehicular movement was disrupted as activists of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, including women, blocked several roads in the district.
Protesters, armed with sticks, demonstrated on the roads to protest the killing of Hoikholhing Haokip in a crossfire between security forces and unknown armed miscreants.
The police, in its statement, said: In response, the security forces launched a search operation in and around Langchingmanbi, Heichanglok, and the western areas of Phubala village. During the course of the operation, security forces came under fire from unknown armed miscreants and retaliated accordingly.
“During the crossfire, a woman from Langchingmanbi village was found dead with a bullet injury. She was later identified as Hoikholhing Haokip, wife of the village chief of Langchingmanbi,” the police said, adding that local police arranged to transport the body to Churachandpur District Hospital for necessary legal formalities.
Police said cases had been registered in connection with the incidents, and an investigation was underway. “Combined security forces are continuing search operations to nab the culprit(s). Every effort is being made to bring those responsible to justice at the earliest,” the statement read.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) meanwhile called the whole incident brutal and cold-blooded.
“This heinous act is not an isolated incident. It is yet another targeted assault in what has now become a systematic campaign of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing against the Kuki-Zo minority. The ITLF holds the State Government directly responsible for allowing such atrocities to unfold under its watch,” it said in a statement.
The tribal organisation has demanded immediate action against those responsible for the atrocity and “an independent investigation into the repeated Buffer Zone violations.”
Meanwhile, tension gripped parts of the Meitei-dominated Imphal West district of strife-torn Manipur on Tuesday after the body of a physically challenged man, who had been missing since June 10, was recovered.
The victim belonged to the Meitei Muslim community, locally called Pangals. Police said a probe was underway to ascertain the cause of the killing.
A crowd pelted stones at the security forces during a protest staged against the killing at Paobitek Mayai Leikai in Imphal West soon after security forces exhumed the body of the victim, Chesam Abdul Kadir, on Tuesday morning.
Security forces then fired tear gas shells to control the protesters.
In this matter, police said six members of Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei radical group, and three others were arrested for their alleged involvement in the killing. Police said a drive was underway to make a few more arrests.
The All-Manipur Muslim Students’ Organisation, in its statement, condemned the entire incident and demanded strict action in the matter.
