'Help us to go back home', urge displaced villagers
Source: The Sangai Express

Bishnupur, September 12 2023: Villagers of Torbung Gram Panchayat have made earnest appeals for their resettlement after they were forced to leave their villages following the arson and subsequent levelling of their houses since May 3 by Kuki militants.

Raising their demand for resettlement, the residents of Torbung GP staged a sit-in protest at Phougakchao Ikhai Mamamg Leikai yesterday.

Speaking by the sideline of the protest, an unnamed villager displaced from Torbung recalled that the innocent villagers of Torbung Bangla were driven out of their homes by the violence which erupted on May 3 and left to seek refuge in various relief camps.

As the conflict has raged on for more than four months, she maintained that the State Government has not taken up any concrete steps to help the people displaced from different localities of Bishnupur such as Waikhurok, Bangla, Torbung, Phougakchao Ikhai Makha Leikai, Mayai Leikai and so on to return to their homes.

"The BJP led Manipur Government has remained indifferent to the hardships faced by the displaced people, including elders, women and children.

The double-engine Government of BJP which was once touted to bring development and prosperity in Manipur has instead crushed the people, especially the Meiteis, under its wheels", she rued.

She questioned if the State legislators and BJP leaders would remain mute if their families had been at the receiving end of the atrocities inflicted by Kuki militants.

They continue to remain silent because their own family members are not bearing the brunt of the violence, she opined.

Stating that they want to return to their homes after facing many hardships including illnesses at the relief camps, she appealed to the relevant authorities to help the displaced people realize their wish.

Aside from this, she also called for withdrawal of Assam Rifles from Manipur.

The protestors also raised slogans demanding resettlement of displaced people at their homes in Torbung GP, withdrawal of AR from the State and condemning the excessive use of force by the AR personnel in the Pallel incident.

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