Marching towards May 3, 2024 : Fresh surge in violence
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 29, 2024 -

The pattern and agenda behind the surge in fresh violence should be clear to Imphal and Delhi, and obviously the people.

Even as each day brings Manipur closer to the one year mark, which is on May 3, Kuki militants are hell bent on underlining the run up to the one year mark with bombs and bullets.

In the process they have not hesitated in training their guns on Central security forces killing two CRPF men and injuring two others in a pre-dawn strike at Naranseina Meitei village in Bishnupur district on April 27.

The professional mark which accompanied the surgical strike on the camp of the CRPF would not have missed the eyes of the security establishment and the possibility of the attack on the CRPF camp being part of a larger game plan to mark the completion of one year of violence and ethnic clash cannot be ruled out.

The Government would also have noted the pattern behind the surge in violence.

The gun fire and bombs that rained on the CRPF camp on April 27 fits in well with the general apprehension that the lull in violence before the two phase Lok Sabha elections in Manipur was just a blip on the radar.

Just one day before the attack at the CRPF camp, heavily armed Kuki militants had launched a calibrated offensive from Sinam Kom Tabi hill range towards Meitei villages.

This is where one is left wondering what has happened to the buffer zones that came along with the instruction, ‘You be in charge of the valley and I will take care of the hills’ from Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Chief Minister N Biren during the earlier stage of the conflict.

The Kuki militants are belligerent, no doubt about this, but yet in many ways the attack at the CRPF camp is a reflection of the total failure of Delhi and Imphal to address the ongoing violence which has claimed over 200 lives so far.

The writings on the wall should have been clear.

Just four days before the attack at the CRPF camp, Sekmai came under heavy firing from Kuki militants on April 23.

Reflecting the reality that Meitei settlements can be picked up and targeted by the well armed Kuki militants at will and one is left wondering what Delhi has been doing all these days.

A more than clear indication that the Government has horribly failed to come anywhere near the stage of tackling the situation and perfecting the script to let Manipur continue to suffer.

This is what is unacceptable, for in as much as the Meiteis and the Kukis may be against each other it also stands that a Government reluctant to tackle the issue with a strong hand has only aided the conflict to linger on for so long.

Renewed onslaught, targeting even Central security personnel and obviously this is how the Kuki militants would want to mark the completion of one full year of violence and mayhem.

Again it was just a few days back that Sapermeina bridge on the Imphal-Dimapur National Highway was substantially damaged wth bombs.

The pattern, spoken of earlier here, then is to ring in the completion of one year of the clash with more violence and inflame people’s sentiments.

Even as the run up to the one year mark of the clash has been marked with violence and more violence, Manipur and the Kuki-Zos must have started charting out the dos to be observed on May 3, 2024.

Apart from the spree of violence that has been witnessed in the run up to the said date, one can expect more and more false narratives to be fed to the mainstream media.

One can also expect the day to be observed at places such as Delhi, Aizawl and other places which have a sizeable population of Meiteis and Kuki-Zos and arrangements must already be in place to observe the day to fit in with the false narratives that have marked the ongoing clash since it erupted on May 3, 2023.

Eyes will also be on Imphal, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh and while one can expect manufactured stories to come out from the latter three places mentioned, no word would be said on why and how violence erupted at Churachandpur after the Tribal Solidarity March on May 3, 2023, while it passed off peacefully at Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong.

Can ITLF answer this or is the truth too uncomfortable for them, is the question that may be raised now.