Despite assurances on security, Mizoram Meiteis flee to Assam

New Delhi, July 23

With a group of former insurgents in Mizoram asking Meiteis residing there to leave the state for their “own safety” after the Manipur video went viral and several community people having started leaving, the Mizoram Government has stepped up security measures for them while urging them to stay put.

While 78 persons flew to Manipur on Sunday in three flights, 65 travelled to the neighbouring state on Saturday. Also, 31 Mizo students from Manipur returned to Mizoram due to the prevailing situation there.

Meanwhile, 41 Meiteis have reached Assam from Mizoram. Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta of Cachar district said these people reached Silchar on Saturday night and they had been kept at a building of Lakhipur Development Block in the Binnakandi area. “They are all from well-to-do families and came in their own vehicles. Some are college professors, while some work as senior government officials. They said there had been no fresh attacks in Mizoram,” he told reporters, adding that those who had come told the police that the Mizoram Government was providing security to them, but they themselves did not want to take any risk and had left for their safety.

The Mizoram Police said several Meiteis left for their home states on Saturday amid mounting tension. A few thousand Meiteis, mostly from Manipur and south Assam, live in Mizoram.

The Peace Accord MNF Returnees’ Association had on Friday stated Meiteis should leave Mizoram for their “own safety”. It cited “anger among Mizo youth” over the May 4 incident involving the two women in Manipur as the reason. It said any potential violence against the Meiteis in Mizoram would solely be their responsibility.

With reports suggesting that Meiteis are leaving Mizoram, state Home Commissioner and Secretary H Lalengmawia met leaders of the community and assured them of their safety and security, the state government said in a statement.

The Mizos of Mizoram, who share a deep ethnic bond with the Kuki-Zomis of Manipur, have been providing shelter and care to over 12,000 Kuki-Zomi people, who fled from Manipur since the ethnic-violence erupted on May 3.

Meanwhile, the Assam Rifles has taken legal action against the chief of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) as the outfit had called on people “not to surrender weapons”. The force has registered a sedition and defamation case against him.

A police official from Imphal confirmed the development saying: “We have registered an FIR against COCOMI and its convener Jitendra Ningomba at the Churachandpur police station for sedition and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language.”

Struggling to bring peace in the troubled state, officials in the security set-up said rumours and fake news were proving a roadblock.

They said the horrendous May 4 incident in Kangpokpi district, where two women were paraded, assaulted and their video made, also took place after a picture of a body wrapped in polythene was circulated in the Imphal valley with a false claim that the victim had been murdered by tribals in Churachandpur.

The officials said the picture was later found to be that of a woman murdered in the national Capital but the fire had engulfed the valley by that time, and what was witnessed the next day put humanity to shame. The same day, barely 30 km away, two more women in their 20s were raped and murdered, they said.

Inhuman, PM must intervene: Irom

Rights activist Irom Sharmila has described the strip-and-parade of two Manipur women as “inhuman” and urged PM Modi to immediately intervene to address the situation.

Peace unlikely till cm quits: Cong

• The Congress has claimed peace won’t return to Manipur till N Biren Singh remains the CM
• It urged PM Modi to ‘act and not deflect, distort & defame to cover up the collapse of governance’
• The administration has actively fanned hate, it said