Sectarian strife in India’s Manipur goes high-tech
The 16-month-old sectarian strife in India’s Manipur state has turned high-tech with drones and short-distance rockets used in the ethnic fight between tribal majority Christians and Hindus.
The central government said it is "very much concerned" about the use of advanced weapons amid the ongoing sectarian strife, which started on May 3 last year.
On Sept. 8, at least six people were killed in the renewed violence over granting tribal status to Meitei Hindus to avail reservation benefits under India’s affirmation policy.
A 63-year-old person was killed in an attack by Kuki tribal militants in Jiribam district and the rival Meitei faction killed four Kuki militants in a retaliatory action. One person from the Meitei community died in the crossfire.
Media reports claimed that drones were used to drop bombs on civilians at two places in Imphal West district in which two people were killed earlier this week.
UCA News
The attacks using these improvised rockets were fired from elevated positions in the Kuki-majority Churachandpur district towards the low-lying residential area of Tronglaobi, where Meitei Hindus mainly inhabit.
Additional Director General of Police K Jayenta told the media in the state capital Imphal that police have deployed anti-drone weapons in border areas.
"The home ministry is focused on a two-pronged strategy to enforce law and order,” a security official told UCA News on condition of anonymity.
Manipur borders civil war-hit Myanmar and Muslim-majority Bangladesh whose Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the nation on May 5 due to weeks of deadly demonstrations against her government.
The Kuki-Zo tribal Christians, who make up nearly 41 percent of the northeastern state's 3 million people, oppose the move by the pro-Hindu party-led government to grant tribal status to the prosperous Meitei Hindu community.
This, the Kuki-Zo people fear, will allow the Meiteis to buy indigenous land in the hills. Tribal Christians stay mainly in the hilly districts.
Non-tribal people are not allowed to buy tribal lands, and that restriction would be overcome when Hindus are listed as tribal people, Kuki leaders say.
The government of Chief Minister Biren Singh from the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is insisting on a 'military operation' mechanism to end the communal riots that have claimed more than 220 lives and uprooted over 60,000 – most of them Christians.
PM Modi has not visited the state despite repeated demands.
The state government has set up a unified command, which includes joint operations by the army and police. The Manipur governor heads it, the top constitutional authority. The chief minister acts as its advisor.
Earlier, the warring factions used traditional methods and arms. Until last year, rockets were made with pump guns and local pipes, whose range was significantly less. But in the recent attacks, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) with high striking range are being used.
In the 1950s and the 1960s, when Manipur witnessed violence, guerrilla warfare was the norm.
Rocket-propelled grenades and drones attack in Manipur leave PM Modi's Govt red-faced
New Delhi
Manipur, India's province nestled in the northeastern sector of the country, bordering Myanmaris burning again.
A series of violent incidents and killings have been reported sending shockwavesboth in the Christian-dominated region and also the rest of India.
It's a war-like situation. The unauthorized weapons, including snipers, drone bombings, and improvised rocket-propelled grenades, in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Kuki and Meitei communities is certainly no trivial matter.Kukis are Christians - both Catholic but mostly Protestants and Meiteis are generally Hindusbut have sizable Chrstians too.The ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis commenced in May 2023 and whilethere was a temporary let up for a brief spell, things are back to square one and worse.
The security apparatus in Manipur comprising police and about 60,000 federal forces andarmy personnel are alarmed.The Govt of India in New Delhi says it is seized of the matter and is "very much concerned".
"The federal Home Ministry is of course focused on a two pronged strategy of enforcing law and order
and secondly, the dialogue among and with both the communities aimed at reconciliation in Manipur,"
a security official in Delhi told UCA News on the condition of anonymity.
Security analysts say of course, the deployment of drones and RPGs has taken the strife levels in Manipurto a battlefield scenario.
The situation in Bangladesh is volatile and in neighbouring Myanmar,
there is fighting between rebels and the junta and hence if the warfare-like situation spreads it will be more difficult to control.
The ethnic violence that began in May 2023 has so claimed about 200 lives and injured some 1,000. About 40 people are reported missing. The rioters in 2023 also had burned down or vandalized around 380 religious structures including temples and churches.
The High Court in Manipur state on Feb. 22 (2024) deleted a paragraph from a controversial order that reportedly resulted in unprecedented ethnic riots in the state.
The Manipur State High Court in February deleted part of the March 2023 order that directed the state government to send a recommendation on 'Scheduled Tribe' status for the Hindu Meitei community, which triggered protests from the Christian majority Kuki tribal people.
A panel of experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council had said they were especially concerned “that the violence seems to have been preceded and incited by hateful and inflammatory speech.”
Manipur is 41.29 percent Christian, mostly tribal people, while 41.39 percent are Hindus.
The violence in Manipur since May 2023 has left the Narendra Modi government in Delhi red-faced.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also “accused of pursuing policies that discriminated against Christian Zos, Paiteis and Kukis, including forced evictions that threatened the security of their land.
Making things complex, in many cases, police have been accused of refusing to assist Kuki people, who have been attacked. Several cases of violence against Kuki are also not investigated, Kuki leaders have alleged.
Congress lawmaker from Manipur A Bimol Akoijam recently said “Prime Minister (Modi) thinks he does not need to go to Manipur. This shows the indifference or seriousness to the suffering of the state. That is the PM for you. He went to show solidarity with the suffering people due to the train accident in Odisha.
One of the most mysterious things is that you have a situation where the constitutional order has collapsed. The Chief Minister cannot visit certain places".
Suspected Kuki militants bombed a Meitei village in Imphal West district, near the border with the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district last week killing at least one woman and injuring some others.
The federal government is "very much concerned about the recent escalation and technological upgradation in the ethnic violence", the senior official said.
Insurgency and ethnic violence are of course nothing new in Christian and tribal dominated northeastern states of India.Most communities such as Nagas claim they "got independence" on Aug 14th, 1947 -- a day before India attained its independence from 200 years of colonial rules.
Things have changed a lot from the guerrilla warfare that reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s in provinces like Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.
It moved to the use of modern sophisticated cars. The insurgency in Tripura was once infamous for kidnapping for ransom and allegedly 'slow poisoning' also deprived long lives of those who used to be abducted.
But the use of drones and rocket-propelled devices are certainly new developments and appearsa matter of ominous spectre.
Prime Minister Modi-led BJP suffered a major electoral setback in the country's general elections -- results of which came out on June 4.
Many commentators have factored 'Manipur mess' (of 2023) as one of the factors.
The worst part of the mandate for Modi and his trusted Home Minister Amit Shah wasthat the BJP lost both the parliamentary seats in Manipur.
The worst part was federal Home Minister Shah's categorical rejection of demand for replacing Chief Minister N Biren Singh. "We will not remove him, he is cooperating with the centre," Shah had said in Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) during the No Confidence Motion debate in August 2023.
 |
| Blogger and security personnel |
The demands for the Chief Minister's resignation has surfaced yet again.
But lately it is learnt that Chief Minister Biren Singh has sought "power powers" in the security apparatus and 'military operation' mechanism in the state.As of now he is the Advisor while the province Governor is the chairman of the unified command that includes anti-militants joint operations by military and state police.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment