Gorkha forum flays loot, extortion by Kuki militants
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, July 04 2023: International Gorkha Forum (IGF), a body based in London, condemned the act of extortion, looting, harassment and forced donations by Kuki militants in the strongest terms saying that such acts amount to direct threat to the neutrality of the Gorkhas in the present situation and detrimental to harmonious coexistence.

In a release, IGF media convener Bharat Belbase stressed that brutality in any form has no place in the present world.

The unfortunate incident of violence that broke out on May 3 between Meeteis and the Kukis in Manipur has been a cause of grave concern to the Gorkhas equally.

They have been showing solidarity to the loss of precious lives and valuable properties and for displaced people of both the communities with utmost shock and reverence and sharing the pains.

Gorkha community has been generously providing relief materials in the hills and valley at this trying times and is involved in restoration of peace and normalcy at their levels, it added.

However, Kuki militants have been making impositions of varied degrees and forcibly making demands which are unbearable and unacceptable to the poor and innocent Gorkha people residing in the hill districts.

There are numerous instances of continuous extortion in cash and kind from the Gorkha community in the hills by the Kuki militants, it claimed.

IGF president Veeshmaraj Bogati stated that it will be a considered opinion and a conclusion of the Gorkhas that the Kuki militants have crossed the reasonable limit and are going against the spirit of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence and that Gorkha people's re straints and neutrality in the prevailing conflict situation should not be construed as their weakness in any sense.

In case of any eventuality, the governments of India and Manipur, Kuki community and its CSOs should bear the responsibility.

The Kuki community and its CSOs should address the issue at hand as soon as possible before it takes an ugly turn, it emphasised.

The Gorkha body further recounted that the wound is still afresh when in 2012, the then Congress government in Manipur deleted four Gram Panchayats namely, Koubru Leikha, Toribari, Kalapahar and Santola-bari-Parsain for reason best known to the government at the cost of the Meetei and the Gorkha community.

"Our people remained silent to the decision of the government, but today, push has come to shove and now the Gorkhas worldwide will not remain mute spectators to the atrocities to the our people in Manipur.

The Gorkhas being peace loving are content by what is given, have not harmed any community in any manner anywhere and our silence and tolerance should not be considered as our weakness in any manner and history stands to this truth, " it said.

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