Intense firing reported in two Manipur districts
Firing incidents were reported in two areas of Manipur on Wednesday at around 4:30 am. The previous incident of intermittent firing between the communities took place on July 4, in the evening. Intense firing was reported in certain areas of Manipur in the early hours of Wednesday. The firing began at around 4:30 am, specifically in the Kangpokpi district and Bishnupur district, according to news agency PTI. No casualties have been reported so far. The previous incident of intermittent firing between two communities took place on July 4, between 7 and 8 pm, reported PTI, quoting security officials. The exchange of gunfire stopped after this period, and no casualties were reported. Earlier, on the morning of July 4, a group of armed miscreants made an attempt to loot weapons from the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located in a village in Manipur's Thoubal district. A 27-year-old man was killed in the clash between the miscreants and security officials, and an Assam Rifles jawan was shot at. The mob tried to storm the camp of an India Reserve Battalion in the Khangabok area to loot arms and ammunition, they said. Soon, a clash with the forces broke out. The forces tried to bring the situation under control and
Manipur violence: Cannot back down during peace offensive, says Kuki leader whose home was torched after decision to lift highway blockade
Seilen Haokip's home was set on fire a day after the KNO and the United People's Front announced that the blockade on National Highway 2 in Kangpokpi district will be lifted. Seilen Haokip told The Indian Express that the incident took place around 11-11:30 pm and that no one was home at that time. The home of Kuki National Organisation (KNO) spokesperson Seilen Haokip was set on fire in Manipur’s Churachandpur on Monday night. This came a day after the KNO and the United People’s Front announced that the blockade on National Highway 2 in Kangpokpi district will be lifted. Haokip’s house is located in Songpi in Churachandpur district. While there have been multiple instances of properties of Meitei representatives being torched by members of the Meitei community in parts of the valley, especially Imphal, this is the first prominent instance of a Kuki-Zomi leader’s residence being targeted in a Kuki-Zomi dominated area. Haokip told The Indian Express that the incident took place around 11-11:30 pm and that no one was home at that time. On Sunday, the KNO and UPF – both of which come under a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement – said that the decision to lift the highway blockage was taken
Manipur violence: Kuki National Organisation spokesperson’s house set on fire in Churachandpur
A house of a Kuki leader was set on fire in strife-torn Manipur as the state witnessed another wave of violence on Monday (July 3). The incident was part of a new spate of violence that occurred on Monday in the Kangpokpi area located under the Thingsat hill range. (File Photo) By India Today News Desk: The house of Kuki National Organisation spokesperson Seilen Haokip in Churachandpur’s Songpi was set on fire by some unknown miscreants on Monday (July 3). Selien Haokip was one of the leaders who had raised his voice for the lifting of the blockade on National Highway 2 in Kangpokpi. The incident was part of a new spate of violence that occurred on Monday in the Kangpokpi area located under the Thingsat hill range. According to sources, an exchange of gunfire was also witnessed in Phaileng village during the early hours of Monday, escalating the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the strife-torn state. Meanwhile, expressing concern over the law and order situation in Manipur, the Supreme Court has sought a detailed status report from the state government on the measures taken to curb ethnic violence in the state. The Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and
Catholic leaders say ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Christians unfolding in Indian state
MUMBAI – Prayers and protest marches by India’s small but socially influential Catholic community were staged across the country July 2 in response to ongoing violence against Christians in the country’s northeastern state of Manipur. Called by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the protests highlighted that more than 100 people, largely Christians, have been killed so far in Manipur, with the carnage unfolding just ahead of the August anniversary of an anti-Christian pogrom in 2008 in the state of Orissa. The conflict pits the largely Hindu Meitei ethnic group against the mostly Protestant Christian Kuki people, each of which represents roughly forty percent of the state’s population of four million, but the Meitei enjoy the support of regional and national political forces dominated by the Hindu nationalist BJP party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the violence began on May 3, estimates are that some 50,000 displaced persons are now living in 300 refugee camps, though with larger numbers expelled from their homes and villages who haven’t moved to any formal settlements. Over 5,000 structures, including churches and private Christian homes, have been burned, and some local observers claim that as many as 120 people have died. A June 22 message from
Manipur Christian Leader Pleads for Help
By J. M. Lindner 06/12/2023 India (International Christian Concern) —A Christian leader in Manipur, a state in northeast India, is pleading for help because of the murder, desecration, and disruption of his people by a warring tribe. The leader, a native of Manipur who remains unnamed for security reasons, said that members of the Meitei tribe “are killing innocent women, children, pastors, and even civil servants” among the Kuki and Zo tribes. Not only has the government done nothing to stop the violence, but the government has also even sided with the rampaging Hindu tribals. He writes, “the State Chief Ministry, N. Biren Singh, and MP Sapam, a member of Parliament, are heading the Meitei Leepun and Aramba Tenggol,” while the State Police and the Meitei Army join forces to “rape, kill, and burn the minoritiy Kukies. The Christian community is suffering from ethnic cleansing and genocide.” “Churches and Villages are burned down by these Meitei Hindus along with Manipur State Police and even India Army, which are led by Meitei officer [who] join hand with them to kill and burn,” the Manipur Christian leader stated. Thus far he said the conflict has killed at least 147 Christians, and injured another 220, with an additional
Manipur violence | At least 11 killed in late night attack in Khamenlok
Police said that the militants hurled several bombs at Khamenlok late on June 13 night killing and injuring several villagers At least eleven villagers were massacred in a late night attack at Khamenlok in Imphal East district of violence-hit Manipur on June 13, police said. Several injured persons have been admitted in government and private hospitals. Hospital sources said that the death toll will increase since many wounded persons are admitted in the ICUs. The dead bodies have been kept in the mortuary of J.N. Institute of Medical Sciences, Porompat in Imphal. Police said that the militants hurled several bombs at Khamenlok late on Tuesday night killing and injuring several villagers. The unhurt villagers rushed out of their houses to flee to safe areas. However the waiting tribal militants opened fire on the escaping villagers. Additional forces were rushed to Khamenlok. After some minutes of exchange of fire, tribal militants retreated. Khamenlok has been the main battleground for the Kuki tribal militants and the non-tribal Meiteis. In the past few days several persons were killed and wounded in clashes with the militant groups who are armed with many sophisticated weapons. Manipur extends Internet ban till June 15 Reacting to the massacre of innocent villagers, the CLP
Religious Facet Seen in Ethnic Violence in Manipur, India
Christians likely targeted in inter-tribal attacks, sources say. A surge of ethnic violence with a growing religious component in northeastern India led to the killing on Friday (June 9) of a woman in her church building and two other Christians, sources said. The attack by ethnic Meitei with automatic rifles in Manipur state’s Khoken village, on the boundary between Kangpokpi and Imphal West districts, killed the ethnic Kuki Christian woman in her 60s, Domkhohoi Haokip, as she prayed, according to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF). “They have no regard for women and children,” Ginza Vualzong, spokesperson for the ITLF, told Morning Star News. “A woman was killed inside the church while she was praying, that’s how merciless they are.” Two other ethnic Kuki Christians, Jangpao Touthang and Khaimang Guite, were killed in the attack in which the armed Meitei arrived in the vehicles and uniforms of the Indian army, according to an ITLF press statement. Local people initially thought they were government soldiers combing the area to maintain order. The use of army uniforms and vehicles by the Meitei militants raised questions about how they obtained them and potential involvement of outside forces in the conflict. Two other Kuki Christian villagers, identified as Thongneh
Manipur crisis part 3: How can the State watch while Manipur burns?
This is the third of our three-part series trying to observe the Manipur crisis from as many angles as possible. In this piece, the author argues that the first step would be to try to prevent more violence from taking place by exercising the writ of the State. The healing will come later, as it must. — ON April 27 a mob set on fire an open gym in Churachandpur district of Manipur, which was scheduled to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh the very next day. Meanwhile, on April 28, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum had called for a total shutdown in the district in protest against the eviction of Kuki tribal residents of K. Songjang village at the site of the Churachandpur–Khoupam protected forest area. Also read: Manipur crisis: Supreme Court expresses disappointment with HC, directs authorities to exercise “responsibility and restraint” On May 3, a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) to protest against the demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list by the Meitei Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee (STDCM). In the judgment, delivered on March 27, the Manipur High Court approved the petition filed by the members of
Indian nun, mother arrested for ‘offending’ religion
A Catholic nun and her mother were among five people arrested for allegedly offending religious feelings and promoting enmity between religions after they joined a Mass in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state. Police arrested newly professed Sister Bibha Kerketta, a member of Daughters of St Anne (DSA) on June 6 night along with her mother, aunt, uncle and a driver from her home at Balachapper village, Jashpur diocese. “The nun and her family members were booked in a totally false case,” said Father Nirmal Minj, parish priest of the nun's Shanti Bhavan parish. More universal than Catholicism? Mary among Asian religions The arrested were kept in the police station at night and were produced before the court the following day, on June 7 evening. The court granted bail to the nun’s uncle but remanded others into judicial custody, Minj said. Kerketta became a professed nun in December and the family “celebrated a thanksgiving Mass at her home,” Minj told UCA News on June 8. “Close family members, priests and nuns from the locality attended the Mass and had a fellowship meal as well,” he said. Soon after the guests left, some 20 men, some of them from the nearby villages, forced their way into her home and started
Indian bishops say Manipur riots targeted tribal Christians
Bishops' body in Kerala says the 'well-orchestrated' violence in the northeastern state exposes BJP’s ‘double standards’ A man walks past a house that was set on fire and vandalized by mobs in Khumujamba village on the outskirts of Churachandpur on May 9 in a violence-hit area of the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. The sectarian violence in Manipur state in north-eastern India was "well-orchestrated" and "targeted the Kuki tribe," 90 percent of whom are Christians belonging to different denominations, alleged a Catholic bishops’ body from southern Kerala state. “It is true that the normal conflict between the majority local Hindu community representing Meiteis and indigenous people, mostly Christians, was communalized and used to destroy tribal Christians,” said Father Michael Pulickal, secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance, which carried out an inquiry into the Manipur riots. Father Pulickal told UCA News on May 29, three days after releasing a report of the commission, that “the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) changes its colors for power” and the violence “has exposed the double standards” of the party. The BJP rules India and Manipur state. The priest, a member of Carmelite of Mary Immaculate, said the commission had gathered inputs from reliable
