Imphal/New Delhi:

A global umbrella body of civil society organisations of Manipur’s Meitei community has appealed to the central government to take decisive action against who it alleged were “Chin-Kuki insurgents”, a day after a paramilitary soldier was killed in action in Jiribam district. The Manipur Police and Chief Minister N Biren Singh in separate statements on X had said the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldier was killed in firing by “suspected Kuki insurgents” on Sunday.

The Meitei Alliance in a statement today condemning the killing of the CRPF soldier said “there had been multiple such attacks on the security forces by Chin-Kuki cross-border terrorists” amid the ethnic tension in Manipur.

The Manipur Police said in the statement had said 43-year-old CRPF soldier Ajoy Kumar Jha was part of a joint patrol in Jiribam when they came under fire. He was a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, and was scheduled to go home on leave this week. Two policemen and a paramilitary soldier were injured in Sunday’s attack.

In January, on a question about violence in the border trading town Moreh, Manipur Security Adviser Kuldiep Singh had told reporters at Imphal airport, “As far as Myanmar-based militants are concerned, we do not have any such confirmation.” Later, at another press conference in Imphal, he had said, “Intelligence is there, but intelligence cannot be evidence. There is a possibility they [Myanmar insurgents] might have come. But there is no evidence.”

In the statement today, the Meitei Alliance said Ajoy Kumar Jha’s “supreme sacrifice while serving the nation will be remembered with utmost respect. The Meitei Alliance extends its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Ajoy Kumar Jha, and prays for the speedy recovery of the injured personnel.”

The Meitei Alliance alleged a similar ambush happened on June 10 on an advance convoy of security forces going towards Jiribam district, 240 km from the state capital Imphal, to prepare for Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s planned visit. Mr Singh eventually cancelled the visit.

“… Ajoy Kumar Jha was the 12th security personnel killed by these cross-border terrorist groups [since May 2023]. The lack of satisfying actions by the central government to suppress such cross-border terrorism despite security personnel being killed… and over 60,000 languishing in relief camps for the last 14 months, is really upsetting to say the least,” the Meitei Alliance said in the statement.

“The lack of actions further emboldens these terrorist groups to commit such heinous crimes without fear of the law,” it said, adding the central government should restore the rule of law in Manipur.

The ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administrative carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.