Hoping against hope
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 16, 2023 -

Notwithstanding the repeated claims of the Government of India that the situation in the Northeast state of Manipur is peaceful whenever it had to react against the "concerns" shown by any international body and the repeated assurances given by the Chief Minister N Biren Singh led BJP government in the state that it is doing everything possible to restore peace and normalcy, the situation on the ground has always told of a tale that is quite different and contradictory to these claims and assurances.

It is a common knowledge to all today that the now over four-month-long violent confrontation between the Meeitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities is only escalating with each passing day bringing in news of gun-fights and more senseless killings.

Interestingly, all the tall claims of the Government of India and the assurances given by Chief Minister N Biren Singh have been repudiated by their own released information/reports.

According to the latest official information released by the state police department on Thursday, since the outbreak of the violent conflict on May 3 evening till September 13, which is exactly a span of 133 days, 175 people have lost their lives, 32 people are missing, 1108 people suffered varied degrees of injuries and 4786 houses reduced to ashes.

Of the 175 people who lost their lives, the identities of 165 have been established.

And again, out of these 175 people killed, mortal remains of 79 have been claimed while 96 mortal remains are still lying unclaimed in the mortuaries of JNIMS (26), RIMS (28) and Churachandpur District Hospital (42).

If the 32 missing cases, which could very well be concluded as death by now are added, then the total death toll in the ongoing conflict could be rounded off to 207 without any question.

Escalation of the violent conflict, the first spark of which was lit in Churachandpur district in the evening of May 3 before it soon spread to other Kuki-Chin community dominated areas like Kangpokpi and Moreh where people belonging to Meitei/Meetei community were targeted, can also be known from a comparative study of the updated official information released and the earlier information provided by the Government of Manipur.

In a 16-page report submitted to the Supreme Court of India on July 10, 2023, the Government of Manipur had put the death toll in the ongoing conflict at 142 and missing cases at 17 as of July 4.

So, one can see that the death toll risen by 33 in a span of 70 days, that is, from July 5 to September 13, and if we were to take into account of the 17 missing cases as well, then the total death toll should come to 55.

The report also mentioned about registration of 5995 FIRs, which has now been increased to 9332.

All these indicate that the violent conflict is only escalating with no sign of any slowdown.

While the failure of government machineries to act and put the situation under control in time has been cited by many observers/ experts as the main reason behind the escalation of the violent conflict, the public expectation for some respite from the current clashes is likely to remain a still distant dream, as the latest official information has revealed that out of 5668 arms that have been looted from various police armouries both in the hills and the valley, only 1329 have been recovered so far.

This is not even half of the total number of arms that had been looted. With so many weapons yet to recover, it would be nothing but hoping against hope to expect fighting to stop and normalcy to return in the strife-torn state.