Imphal/Guwahati:

The Manipur government has initiated action against a Kuki insurgent group for renaming a sacred hill of the valley-dominant Meitei community, and for claiming the area as its “camp”.

The Kuki armed group’s action could spiral into another round of violence amid the ethnic tension between the hill-dominant Kuki tribes and the Meiteis, Manipur government sources said today.

The Kuki National Front – Military Council, or KNF(MC), which also calls itself the “Kuki Army”, had installed a signboard at the base of the Thangjing ching (hill) calling it “Thangting camp” of the “Kuki Army”.

The Meitei community in the lakeside Moirang town had been going for pilgrimage to Thangjing ching, the home of the deity Ibudhou Thangjing. They believe the Thangjing ching site to be at least 2,000 years old. The tribes call this hill range Thangting, which falls under Churachandpur district.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in a post on X said the state government has filed a police case against the Kuki armed group, as the area is a protected site. The renaming by the armed group also violated the Manipur Names of Places Act, 2024, Mr Singh said.

“Immediately taken up measures to book any group or individuals involved in changing any existing names without the approval of the government. Under the Manipur Names of Places Act, 2024 a case has also been registered for changing Thangjing ching, which is also a protected site, to Thangting,” the Chief Minister said.

The State Government has immediately taken up measures to book any group or individuals involved in changing existing names of places in the state.

Under Manipur Names of Places Act, 2024, a case has also been registered for renaming a part of Thangjing hill range as… pic.twitter.com/3KMQocniH9

— N.Biren Singh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@NBirenSingh) May 20, 2024

The Thangjing ching range lies between Moirang town and Churachandpur district, 40 km apart. Churachandpur and nearby areas are where ethnic violence began on May 3, 2023. The people in Moirang – home to the northeast’s largest freshwater lake Loktak – also consider the deity Ibudhou Thangjing the area’s guardian.

The Manipur cabinet in October 2022 took a decision to include four hectares of Ibudhou Thangjing, two hectares of Koubru Laipham, and four hectares of Lai Pukhri under Section 4 of the Manipur Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1976, which protects these places from encroachments.

Manipur government sources said the Kuki insurgent group’s blatant act to install a signboard claiming the hill as the “camp” of the “Kuki Army” would be taken as an act of hostility. They said the central government will be briefed about the escalation by the armed group, and possible course of action.

SoO Agreement Violation?

The insurgent group KNF-MC is a signatory to the controversial tripatriate suspension of operations (SoO) agreement between some 25 Kuki-Zo insurgent groups and the Centre and the state government, held together by a joint monitoring committee comprising the military and intelligence.

Broadly, the SoO agreement says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

Just how the KNF-MC ventured out of their designated camps and suddenly put their name on the hill range sacred to the Meiteis as a “camp” of the “Kuki Army” will be questioned, sources said, adding this act clearly violated the ground rules of the SoO agreement.

The Manipur assembly on February 29 unanimously passed a resolution asking the Centre to scrap the SoO agreement. Every year, the joint monitoring group reviews the SoO agreement and decides whether to end or renew it. The agreement’s renewal deadline ended in February. The signatories including the Centre and the state government are yet to announce the exact status of the agreement.

This was not the first time Thangjing ching saw a controversy. In February, a cross was installed atop the hill in an act seen as destabilising in the violence-hit state. In October 2023, photos taken with powerful zoom lenses and drone footage had confirmed the installation of another cross on the hill. Moirang MLA Thongam Shanti had told NDTV the cross came up on the same spot where the shrine of Ibudhou Thangjing stood.

Imphal/New Delhi:

The appearance of a cross and a community flag atop a hill near Manipur’s Moirang town has raised a massive controversy, as the hill has a sacred site of the residents of this lakeside district, 60 km from the state capital Imphal.

Moirang’s Meitei community had been going for pilgrimage to Thangjing hill, the home of the deity Ibudhou Thangjing. They believe the Thangjing hill site to be at least 2,000 years old. The tribes call this hill range Thangting. The renaming to Thangting in December 2015 by the then Congress government in the state had led to tensions among communities.

The alleged encroachments were seen on camera for the first time on September 11, a Moirang resident told NDTV. The community flag also worn as a shoulder patch by an insurgent group has been removed now, though the cross remains, the resident said, requesting anonymity.

Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) spokesperson Ginza Vualzong denied any encroachment on the sacred site of the Meitei community.

“The cross is a sign of Christianity; it is seen in many parts of our land, be it in churches or homes. As it is a symbol of our religion, to erect a cross at the Thangting range is normal and an expression of our faith. Since it does not encroach on anyone’s land, I do not see an issue here,” Mr Vualong told NDTV, denying encroachments on the sacred site of the Moirang residents.

Several civil society groups including the Association of Meiteis in the Americas (AMA) have, however, requested the government to clear the alleged encroachment from Thangjing hill.

“To make a comparison on why this is an extremely serious matter, we would like to point out that the desecration of Thangjing hill would be the same as the desecration of Bharat’s holy sites in the mountains like Kedarnath, Badrinath, or the Amarnath shrine,” AMA said in the statement.

This hill range lies between Moirang and Churachandpur districts, 40 km apart. Churachandpur is where ethnic violence between the hill-majority Kuki tribes and the valley-majority Meiteis began on May 3.

The people in Moirang under Bishnupur district – home to the northeast’s largest freshwater lake Loktak – consider the deity Ibudhou Thangjing the area’s guardian. Photos taken with powerful zoom lenses and drone footage show the objects on the hill, giving it the appearance of a place that has been desecrated, Moirang MLA Thongam Shanti told NDTV.

Mr Shanti alleged the cross and the flag came up on the same spot where the shrine of Ibudhou Thangjing stands, though Mr Vualzong denied any such thing.

“This is what terrorists do, encroaching upon other people’s sacred land. We grew up living in harmony with other communities and yes, we have been living peacefully with the tribes too. Only in recent times a lot of infiltration has taken place from Myanmar. These people don’t know the land, don’t respect the land. They want to break up Manipur. The tribes we have been living with wouldn’t desecrate our holiest shrine,” the MLA told NDTV.

Mr Vualzong said the allegations by Moirang residents that a flag of an insurgent group has been installed atop Thangjing hill is a blatant lie.

“As for the flag, it is not the ZRA flag, but a Zomi or a community flag,” he said.

The Manipur cabinet in October last year took a decision to include four hectares of Ibudhou Thangjing, two hectares of Koubru Laipham and four hectares of Lai Pukhri under Section 4 of the Manipur Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1976, which protects these places from encroachments.

A Moirang committee on protecting the Koubru and Thangjing ranges has filed a first information report over the alleged encroachment. The committee alleged the Kuki Students’ Organisation in May last year told Moirang residents to take their permission if they wanted to offer prayers at the hilltop shrine. This has led to tension between the two communities.

Ibudhou Thangjing’s shrine on the hill was not visible from Moirang valley in the past, but is visible now with binoculars since a large part of the hillside has been deforested, a Moirang resident who grew up in the lakeside town and who has done studies on deforestation told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

He said communities had been living peacefully until the Thangjing hill subdivision was renamed to Thangting, a name recognised by the hill tribes. “I think that created the ground for confrontation over Thangjing hill. Even then, through negotiation, the Ibudhou Thangjing committee went to the hill shrine last year,” the Moirang resident said, adding deforestation is clearly evident.

People have to cross a few initial lower-height ranges, then a middle spot before finally reaching the hilltop shrine. After the government built a road from Kwakta side to the hilltop, insurgents began misusing the road to travel up and down fast, the Moirang resident alleged. Earlier, only a dirt path existed till the hilltop. Kwakta saw major ethnic clashes in the past months; it lies between Moirang and Thangjing hill.

“Thangjing hill is believed to be the abode of the Ibudhou Thangjing, one of the most revered deities of the Meiteis and Moirang clan in particular for over 2,000 years. The legend of Khamba and Thoibi and the ancient Moirang principality are inseparably linked to this ancient site,” Lieutenant General Konsam Himalay Singh, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM YSM (retired) – the first officer from the northeast to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army – told NDTV.

“Being in Hill areas of Manipur, this sacred site was included in the newly created hill district of Churachandpur in 1969. This sacred site became a friction point in the last few years, when contested rights and claims hardened over the site between a few hill villages and the believers of the deity. I am sanguine that the parties involved will respect the faith of over a million people,” Lt General Singh said.

Maheshwar Thounaojam, a Manipur resident and the General Secretary of the Republican Party of India (Athawale), said Thangjing hill is a cultural heritage site for the Meiteis.

“Ibudhou Thangjing is a primordial deity of the Meiteis, for which we celebrate the first Sunday of the Meitei New Year or Cheiraoba. I and every Meitei strongly condemn the hoisting of the ZRA flag at our cultural heritage site,” Mr Thounaojam told NDTV, referring to the insurgent group Zomi Revolutionary Army’s flag, which the ITLF spokesperson Mr Vualzong has already denied is not the insurgent group’s flag but of a community, indicating the linking of the flag with the insurgent group is misleading.