Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Two senior members of a top civil society group of the Kuki-Zo tribes have refuted allegations made by the Manipur government that the “intellectual” group called for taking up arms in the state affected by ethnic violence.

The BJP state government led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh in October 2023 had announced a police case against the World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council (WKZIC) had been filed, with charges under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, for allegedly publishing a statement asking “volunteers” in the Kuki-Zo tribes to take up arms as Kuki-Zo insurgent groups cannot “join the war” due to the tripartite suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the centre and the state government.

Now, seven months later, the state government is pursuing the matter with the Home Ministry to ban the WKZIC, citing information about the group given by state intelligence operatives, people in the state government with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Before the latest push to ban the WKZIC under the anti-terror law, Manipur government and police officials in February – four months after the Biren Singh government announced its intention to ban the group under the UAPA – worked in speed to send a request to the Home Ministry with ground reports collated by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) special branch operatives, asking to declare the WKZIC an “unlawful association/organisation”, documents accessed by NDTV show.

The WKZIC on October 25, 2023 had already trashed the statement attributed to it as “fake”, and questioned the state government’s effort to ban the group under the UAPA, which, the WKZIC had said, was all on the basis of the “unofficial” and “fake” statement circulated on social media.

Clarification in relates to the fake PR and the accusations that emerged. Note that WKZIC exclusively issues Official Press Releases and post them on its Official Twitter Account.

Now, how about sharing this real news more? It’s not just fake news that deserves the spotlight! pic.twitter.com/i9VsJEGWPP

— WORLD KUKI-ZO INTELLECTUAL COUNCIL (WKZIC) (@wkzic) October 25, 2023

“We are a global group. We do not hide any of our activity. We would like to see peace, but so many rights violations are happening. The state government cannot be trusted, so we appeal to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to intervene and solve the Manipur problem,” one of the two senior members of the WKZIC told NDTV on phone from Mumbai, requesting anonymity.

The other senior WKZIC member, who is in Delhi, told NDTV the state government is intimidated by the WKZIC as many highly qualified people from several sectors and professions are part of it, and they have been gaining ground with documentary evidence against “state-sponsored propaganda”.

“The government trying to ban us after seeing a fake statement attributed to us is one of the most ridiculous things to come out of Manipur since last year. Have they checked the source of the statement? Have they found the unknown miscreants behind it?” the Delhi-based member told NDTV. “We had said there and then [October 25, 2023] the statement was fake. The government is only looking for mileage,” the senior member said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Taken aback by the decision of Manipur State Cabinet Vide. No.7, Imphal- WKZIC was noted as ‘Unlawful Association/Organisation’ over a FAKE PR.

WKZIC also condemns the Barbaric Acts of ‘Manipur Police Commando’ (CDO, who indiscriminately harassed innocent inhabitants of Moreh. pic.twitter.com/ESId6FvOBJ

— WORLD KUKI-ZO INTELLECTUAL COUNCIL (WKZIC) (@wkzic) October 31, 2023

Headed by Dr TS Haokip, the WKZIC (formerly Kuki-Zo Intellectual Forum) was formed on May 14, 2023, with its head office in Churachandpur, according to police records. Dr Thathang Hangsing is its vice-president.

State’s Latest Move To Ban WKZIC Under UAPA

After the purported statement attributed to the WKZIC came out on October 24, 2023, the Manipur Police on their own (suo moto) filed a first information report (FIR) on October 30 with the police station in Churachandpur, a district categorised as a hill area and dominated by the Kuki-Zo tribes.

Documents accessed by NDTV including the first information report (FIR), the CID special branch reports, and communication between police and state officials show that after the purported WKZIC statement came out, the state government was alarmed by alleged “movement of armed Kuki militants in large numbers in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal districts”.

“… Their deployment [is] for carrying out attacks on security forces especially the Manipur Police commando teams stationed in Moreh… There are also inputs regarding increase in strength of village volunteers of the Kuki community in the jungle areas of Moreh and movement of consignments of weapons to Moreh from Churachandpur via jungle route,” a senior intelligence officer of the Manipur Police wrote in a letter to the state Home Department on February 7, a day after the Home Department sought information from the police on the proposal to ban the WKZIC as an “unlawful organisation” under the UAPA.

The senior police officer enclosed intelligence reports collected over three months on the movement of suspected Kuki insurgents towards the border trading town Moreh, where two Manipur Police commandos were killed in action in January.

Enclosing the Manipur Police’s reports, the state Home Department then wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on February 11, reminding about the Manipur government’s request to ban the WKZIC under the UAPA.

“… I am directed to request the Ministry to kindly consider and take up necessary action for declaration of World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council (WKZIC) as an unlawful association/organisation under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in the larger interest of the general public,” the Manipur Home Department Joint Secretary said in the letter to the Union Home Ministry.

The state police concluded in the report sent to the state Home Department that the “activities of the WKZIC… has encouraged or aided persons under its influence including various civil society organisations, militant groups, miscreants and other persons in the Kuki-Zo community to commit acts of violence, intimidation, or intimidation against other communities and state security forces.”

“The various violent activities encouraged/incited by the WKZIC has led to the escalation of violence in the current situation [sic] the state,” the police report alleged.

The Home Department then enclosed this report in its letter to the MHA on February 11.

An email sent to the WKZIC went unanswered. The group does not mention a phone number in its statements posted on social media.

The ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo tribes began over cataclysmic disagreements on sharing land, resources, affirmative action policies, and political representation, mainly with the ‘general’ category Meiteis seeking to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category.

Over 220 have been killed, and more than 50,000 have been internally displaced since the violence began on May 3, 2023.

Imphal/New Delhi:
A convoy of Manipur Police commandos drove into the India-Myanmar border town Moreh on Tuesday night following the killing of a senior officer by insurgents. The commandos, who were ambushed by insurgents, pressed on and reached the town at midnight.

Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story

New Delhi/Imphal:

A woman who was released on bail after her arrest in Manipur in August last year over her expired Norwegian passport and Indian e-visa is allegedly a top member of a Myanmar-based insurgent group, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

The insurgent group is fighting the junta in Myanmar’s Chin State, just across the border from Mizoram and Manipur, sources said.

Mya Kyay Mon, 52, was found walking “suspiciously” at a market in Manipur’s capital Imphal on October 23, sources said, adding how she continued to stay on with expired documents and what she was doing in violence-hit Manipur are under investigation.

With Imphal on high alert amid the ethnic tensions between the Meiteis and the Kuki tribes following months-long violence, the police questioned Ms Mon after they found her at the market. She showed her travel papers that turned out to be expired, sources said.

She was taken to the foreigners detention centre and is kept there since then, following an order by the Manipur government to the state police chief and the jail superintendent. NDTV has seen a verified copy of the Home Commissioner T Ranjit Singh’s letter to the police chief and the jail superintendent.

“It is claimed she came to Imphal to appear in a legal case concerning expired documents. But we are exploring all angles, including the allegation that she’s a top member of a Myanmar-based insurgent group and has links with some armed elements in the hill district Churachandpur,” a senior police officer who has direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Some 25 hill-based Kuki insurgent groups have signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the centre and the state government. These insurgent groups along with some civil society organisations in valley-majority Imphal have come under intense scrutiny over alleged participation in the ethnic violence that has killed over 180 and left thousands internally displaced.

Ms Mon was first detained by the Assam Rifles during routine checking in August last year on the highway connecting Imphal with the border trading town Moreh. The Assam Rifles in a statement had said they found an expired Norwegian passport and an Indian e-visa, and she came to India in May 2019.

Subsequently, the Manipur Police took her into custody and kept her in Imphal’s central jail, until she got bail in February this year, after which an Imphal-based human rights organisation run by local activist Babloo Loitongbam helped her find a women’s shelter home to stay.

“The case of Ms Mya Kyay Mon, a Norwegian citizen of Myanmar origin, was brought to the attention of HRA (Human Rights Alert) by the Myanmar language instructor of the Centre for Myanmar Studies of Manipur University… HRA took up her case as a ‘woman in distress case’ and informed the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Delhi. Thereafter, she was issued a fresh Norwegian passport as her old one had expired,” HRA executive director Mr Loitongbam said in a statement in response to local media reports on the matter.

“… In the wake of the ethnic unrest in Manipur and when the NGO (shelter home) expressed their discomfort in keeping her, we organised an air ticket for her to get out of the state. We have been informed she was summoned by the court to appear in her pending trial in Manipur,” Mr Loitongbam said in the statement, adding they did not know Ms Mon before and after her arrest in August last year, until the moment they met her in the Imphal jail.

The activist, who is also a fierce critic of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and whose house was vandalised by a mob earlier this month over his comments on two Meitei organisations, said HRA only gave “legal and humanitarian services” when requested by a woman in distress “as per our mandate as an organisation defending the human rights for all.”

A statement purportedly given by Ms Mon to the media said she left Manipur in May when ethnic violence broke out and lived in Delhi for two months. She then went to Punjab for four weeks and returned to Delhi. She went to Rajasthan next, from where in October she came to Kolkata and proceeded on to Dimapur. Finally, she came to Imphal to meet members of the Manipur Human Rights Commission on October 11, the statement said. But she couldn’t meet them and left Imphal, only to return on October 23, the day she went to the market in Imphal from where she was detained by the police. NDTV could not independently verify this statement.

Though the Manipur ethnic violence between the Kuki tribes and the Meiteis is said to be over the Meities’ demand for inclusion under the Scheduled Tribes category, many leaders including Union Minister Home Minister Amit Shah and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar have said entry of illegal immigrants is one of the main factors behind the unrest in the northeast state, which is ruled by the BJP.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said it is looking into an alleged transnational conspiracy involving terror groups hiding in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Manipur to exploit the ethnic violence in the northeast state.

Imphal/New Delhi:

Manipur’s Governor has warned civil society groups and individuals against renaming places in communications and maps amid the ethnic violence in the state that began on May 3.

The Governor in an order to the local authorities in the state said it has seen incidents of people renaming or trying to rename districts and even institutions, which may escalate tensions among the hill-majority Kuki tribes and the valley-majority Meiteis.

The order signed by Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi said the authorities must ensure this illegal practice is stopped immediately, or else strong action would be taken. Any name not in the land revenue records is illegal.

“It has come to the notice of the state government from reliable sources that many civil society organisations, institutions, establishments and persons are deliberately renaming or trying to rename… places, which are objectionable and likely to create controversy and conflict between communities,” Mr Joshi said in the order.

He said it is important to ensure this practice stops “more particularly in the context of the ongoing law and order crisis”.

Many areas in Manipur show up with two names on Google Maps, people familiar with the matter said. The renaming of places – legally or otherwise – has been a source of tension between communities for a long time.

Thangjing hill, for example, was renamed by the former Congress government as Thangting, a name recognised by the Kuki tribe who live in the hills. The Meiteis in Moirang district near the hill range have objected to it.

The Kuki tribes also call their hill district Churachandpur “Lamka”. Last week, some residents of Churachandpur complained on social media that many parcels with the destination mentioned as “Lamka” were stuck at the post office in the state capital Imphal.

India Post said in its official handle on X, formerly Twitter, that there is no pin code for such a place called “Lamka”.

“We are sorry to inform you that your delivery has been delayed due to the prevailing situation in Manipur. The destination pin code for Lamka does not exist or not available.
Inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted,” India Post said in response to a now-deleted tweet asking for parcel tracking details.

The Kuki tribes have been demanding a separate administration following the outbreak of ethnic clashes with the Meiteis. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) has asked Churachandpur residents not to use “Lamka” until their demand for separate administration is met.

Many contested areas in Manipur in the hills and the valley show up with two names on Google Maps. Kuki settlements have the suffix “Veng”, which means colony. The Meiteis have alleged large-scale editing on Wikipedia and Google Maps to add the word “Veng” at many places. The Kukis, however, maintain these areas have belonged to them traditionally and would rename them formally if they get separate administration.

Government sources told NDTV mass renaming of places on Wikipedia and Google Maps, which leads to tensions on the ground, will be considered criminal acts. “The cyber crime unit is tracking them. We have collected data and have evidence of mischievous acts of renaming places by some people in Manipur and outside the state,” a police officer with the cyber crime unit told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Imphal:

A man from West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur has been charged by the Manipur Police for alleged defamatory posts on social media against the state government, Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The accused, Arijit Biswas, allegedly posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Mr Shah and Mr Singh belong to a “terrorist organisation”, according to the first information report (FIR) filed by an Imphal resident.

The complainant alleged Mr Biswas, a resident of Balurghat, posted on X that the Manipur government has been “sponsoring” ethnic violence and carrying out “genocide”.

A copy of the FIR has been sent to the Commissioner (Home) for further action, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV on Thursday. The charges have been filed under several sections linked to promoting enmity between communities on religious and race lines, including a non-bailable one, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The police will send summons to Mr Biswas to join investigation, people familiar with the matter said, adding a team could be sent to arrest him if he refuses to cooperate in the investigation.

“The accused by using social media platforms as tools propagated misleading statements to destabilise a democratically elected government, disturb communal harmony by creating enmity among communities, and defame the state government and one particular community,” the complainant said in the FIR, a copy of which NDTV has seen.

“The accused intentionally made this false propaganda/misleading statements to continue and escalate the violence in Manipur. His unlawful activities are a threat not only to the security of the state but also to the nation,” the complainant said.

This is the latest police case filed in the state capital Imphal over alleged defamatory content. The Editors’ Guild of India also faces two FIRs over its report on the ethnic clashes, published by a three-member, crowdfunded team after staying in Manipur for four days, which the state government said was “false, fabricated and sponsored”.

The police in northeast states have, in some sensitive cases, sent their personnel to arrest people outside the state and bring them in. Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani was arrested from the state’s Banaskantha district by a team of the Assam Police in April last year over his tweets on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was brought to Assam to face trial. He was later released on bail.

Guwahati:

The Manipur state cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday evening condemned the “unwanted actions” of central security forces on civilians during Friday’s exchange of fire where three people died, and over 50 were injured. It also resolved to apprise the Centre of the incident.

Key decisions of the cabinet, which reviewed the overall situation in the strife-torn northeastern state, included approving the extension of ‘Disturbed Area’ under controversial law Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces and the state and paramilitary forces in areas classified as “disturbed areas”, for another six months.

It also approved a permanent housing scheme for the people displaced during ethnic violence, which has continued for over four months now. The state will build houses wherever the atmosphere is conducive for violence-affected people to return to their original areas of residence. In the first phase, around 1,000 permanent houses would be constructed with an estimated cost of around Rs 75 crore. Rs 10 lakh will be spent on permanent houses, Rs 7 lakh on semi-permanent houses, and Rs 5 lakh on temporary houses.

The fund would be released in two equal instalments — 50 per cent prior to initiation of the construction, and the rest at a later date.

Around 4,800 houses have been burnt or damaged during the violence. Over 170 people have been killed, more than 700 injured, and over 70,000 people of different communities have been displaced, the Manipur government said.

Manipur will also have a compensation scheme for women victims and survivors of sexual assault and other crimes during the ethnic unrest in the state, which started on May 3 after protests against a Manipur High Court order that asked the state government to recommend Scheduled Tribe status for Meities snowballed into a full-blown ethnic conflict, the cabinet decided.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley, while tribals, including Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mostly in the hill districts.

Representational of the United Nations flag
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

India has strongly rejected comments by U.N. experts on Manipur, terming them “unwarranted, presumptive and misleading” and asserting that the situation in the Northeast State is peaceful.

In the note verbale issued on Monday to the Special Procedures Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Indian mission underscored that the situation in Manipur was peaceful and stable and the Indian government was committed to taking requisite steps to maintain peace and stability.

ALSO READ | Manipur ethnic violence | In an armed conflict, the war on women

“The Government is also committed to protecting the human rights of the people of India, including the people of Manipur,” it said.

“The Permanent Mission of India completely rejects the news release as it is not only unwarranted, presumptive and misleading but also betrays a complete lack of understanding on the situation in Manipur and the steps taken by Government of India to address it,” said the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

India’s response came after a group of U.N. experts raised alarm about reports of “serious human rights violations and abuses” in Manipur, including alleged acts of sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, home destruction, forced displacement, torture and ill-treatment.

Rejecting the news release by the Special Procedure Mandate Holders (SPMH) titled ‘India: U.N. experts alarmed by continuing abuses in Manipur’, the Permanent Mission of India expressed disappointment and surprise that the SPMHs chose to issue the press release without waiting for the 60 days period for the Indian government to respond to a joint communication issued on the same topic on August 29, 2023.

The Indian mission expressed hope that in the future, the SPMH would be “more objective” in their assessment, based on the facts.

It hoped that the SPMH would “refrain from commenting on the developments, which have no relevance to the mandate given to them by the Council and abide by the established procedure for issuing news releases and wait for inputs sought from the Government of India before doing so.”

The Indian mission reiterated that India is a democratic country, with an abiding commitment to the rule of law and to promoting and protecting the human rights of our people. “Indian law enforcement authorities and security forces are committed to dealing with law-and-order situations strictly in accordance with the principles of legal certainty, necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination,” it said.

In their news release, the U.N. experts had said they were “appalled” by the reports and images of gender-based violence targeting hundreds of women and girls of all ages, and predominantly of the Kuki ethnic minority.

“The alleged violence includes gang rape, parading women naked in the street, severe beatings causing death, and burning them alive or dead,” the experts said.

The experts also pointed to an “inadequate humanitarian response” in the wake of the grave humanitarian situation in Manipur following the latest round of community conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki ethnic communities that erupted in May 2023.