Family members of six people from the Meitei community killed in Jiribam address the press in Delhi

New Delhi:

Family members of six people from the Meitei community including three children who were kidnapped and killed in Manipur’s Jiribam narrated what they called the “horror” of November 11.

Telem Uttam Singh, who lost his two children and wife; Telem Mongyai Meetei, who lost his elder sister and mother, and Yurembam Sandhiya Begum, who lost her two sisters, told reporters in Delhi they want the government to ensure death penalty is given to the “Kuki militants” who kidnapped and murdered their family members.

The Manipur government in a cabinet resolution has called the perpetrators of the Jiribam massacre “Kuki militants”.

“There must be 30 of them, all of them carrying guns. They surrounded our village. I managed to run, and from a distance saw my mother being dragged away by the Kuki militants in an autorickshaw,” Sandhiya told reporters in Meiteilon, translated into English by a rights activist.

The three family members told reporters they want the government to ensure the death penalty is given to all the Kuki militants involved in the Jiribam massacre. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the case. All the six were internally displaced people who were living in a relief camp in Jiribam’s Borobekra, after their houses in the district bordering Assam were set on fire by Kuki militants earlier this year.

“How much pain do we have to endure? We lost our homes first. Then they came to kill us in the relief camp. Who kills a 10-month-old baby? They are worse than animals,” Telem Uttam Singh told reporters, and broke down and cried.

The six from the same family were Yurembam Rani Devi, 60; Telam Thoibi Devi, 31; Laishram Heitonbi Devi, 25; Laishram Chingkheinganba, 3; Telam Thajamanbi, 8, and Laishram Langamba, 10 months old.

Nine civil society organisations of the Meitei community in a statement on Saturday said the “premeditated, planned cold-blooded murders after taking the six civilian hostages were an act of terror.”

“Jiri massacre was not a fight between two communities or a riot where mob violence affects both sides in the heat of the moment. The Kuki militants travelled 200 km to Manipur’s Jiribam with the sole intention of attacking a relief camp of the Meitei community. Shockingly, instead of condemning the heinous act, Kuki civil society groups played the victim card in front of the national media, and did not even give the basic dignity to the dead by claiming the Kuki militants were ‘village volunteers’,” they said in the statement.

“Who would kill a 10-month-old infant in cold blood, after kidnapping her family? What objective has the Kuki militants achieved by kidnapping and murdering an infant? What is the agenda behind releasing the picture of them in captivity before murdering and dumping the bodies in a river? Is it to cause maximum trauma to the family and incite hatred?” they said.

The civil society groups are Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee, Meitei Alliance, Meitei Heritage Society, No. 7, Team Meitei Personalities, Manipur Students’ Association Delhi, Manipur Innovative Youth Organisation Delhi, United Kakching Students Delhi, and Ningols United Progressive Initiative.

Ten “Kuki militants” were also shot dead by the security forces in Jiribam district on November 11.

Cycle Of Violence Began With Attack By Suspected Meitei Militants?

On November 7, a Hmar woman was killed and several houses were set on fire in Zairawn village by suspected Meitei militants. Her husband in a police case alleged she was raped before she was killed and their house was set on fire by the suspected Meitei militants.

Kuki civil society organisations have said the recent flare-up in Jiribam began after the “Meitei militants” attacked Zairawn village and killed the woman. They have also accused the Manipur government of keeping silent on that attack.

The Manipur cabinet in a statement on November 16, however, had said “Kuki miscreants” burnt several houses and attacked Borobekra police station in Jiribam district on October 19. This attack, and not the November 7 attack, led to a fresh cycle of violence, government sources have said.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the 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 Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.