Tribal group slams CM Biren’s inclusion in Manipur peace panel

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on June 11 slammed the Centre for including Manipur Chief Minister, Nongthombam Biren Singh in a peace committee.

GUWAHATI The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on June 11 slammed the Centre for including Manipur Chief Minister, Nongthombam Biren Singh in a peace committee.

The forum also accused the Chief Minister of perpetrating the violence by branding the Kuki-Zo community as drug peddlers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants.

Mr. Singh is one of the members of the peace committee formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs with Manipur Governor, Anusuiya Uikey as its chairperson.

The ITLF said the Manipur government machinery under Mr. Singh was directly responsible for “engineering” and “escalating” the violence.

The forum demanded the immediate imposition of the President’s Rule in order to curb the “incursions made by Meitei militants and State police on Kuki-Zo tribal lands” and cases of Kuki-Zo volunteers attacking Meitei villages.

“His (the Chief Minister’s) constant rhetoric and hate speech against the Kuki-Zo community, the wholesale tagging of Kuki-Zo community as drug peddlers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants directly shadow the open declaration of genocide by the Meitei Leepun chief, Pramot Singh on national media and the declaration of proxy war of ‘Chin-Kuki Narco-terrorism’ by fringe Meitei groups like the COCOMI and other radical groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun,” the ITLF said in a statement.

The forum said while it stands firmly for peace, it cannot overlook the constant attacks on Kuki-Zo villages from “Meitei militants”. It also said that 160 Kuki-Zo villages were burnt and continue to be under attack from “Meitei militants backed by the State police”.