Perpetrators wouldn't be spared: Shah on Manipur violence
Source: Chronicle News Service

Guwahati/Imphal, May 25 2023: Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that he would soon visit strife-torn Manipur for three days and hold talks with all the stakeholders to resolve the prevailing ethnic crisis in the north-eastern state that is continuing since May 3.After laying the foundation stone for the 11th campus of the National Forensic Sci-ences University (NFSU) in Guwahati, Shah said that the violence in Manipur was triggered by an order of the Manipur High Court.

Urging people of all com-munities in Manipur to maintain peace and ethnic harmony, the Home Minister said that talks among all the stakeholders are essential to resolve the present crisis.

"No perpetrators would be spared and justice would be provided to all the vic-tims and affected persons.

During my three-day pro-posed visit to Manipur, I will talk to all concerned to resolve the problem at the earliest.

Violence has no place in today's society.

"During the past six years, there was no bandh or block-ade as peace was restored in Manipur.

People must main-tain this trend for the all-round development and wel-fare of the people," Shah said.

He also urged people of all communities to leave aside the mistrust and mis-understanding and restore peace and ethnic harmony through talks.

Shah's comments were the first open statement by a high-profile Central minister after ethnic violence broke out in BJP -ruled Manipur more than three weeks ago.

The north-eastern state witnessed widespread vio-lent clashes in more than 10 districts after the May 3 'Trib-al Solidarity March' called by the All Tribal Students' Union of Manipur to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST category, claiming over 70 lives and injuring more than 300 people.

Acting on a writpetition filed by the Meetei (Meitei) Tribal Union, the Manipur High Court's acting Chief Jus-tice MV Muralidaran had on April 19 directed the state government to submit the recommendation for inclu-sion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry.

The high court order snowballed into a major controversy with thousands of tribals turning up for the 'Tribal Solidarity March' on May 3.Meanwhile, a group of MLAs from Manipur are likely to meet Shah in Gu-wahati to apprise him of the prevailing situation in the trouble- torn state.

Meanwhile, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai, who arrived in Imphal on Thursday to take stock of the prevailing situation, confirmed that Union home minister Amit Shah will visit the state on May 29.Soon after his arrival, Ni-tyanand Rai held a press conference at CM secretari-at wherein he disclosed that Amit Shah will visit the state on May 29 and stay till June 1.Amit Shah will meet people from different communities and have dialogues with them to restore peace and tran-quillity in the state, he said.

While maintaining that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been working tire-lessly to bring development in the North East, Nityanand Rai said Manipur had witnessed much development and peace had been prevailing in the state under Narendra Modi's leadership.

On the prevailing situation in the state, he said violence had always been a hurdle to development and did not bring good in any form while reminding all concerned that justice could be delivered only when peace prevails.

Appealing to the entire people of Manipur not to have any apprehension but to have faith in home minister Amit Shah, Nityanand Rai ex-pressed hope that peace and normalcy would be restored.

He added that justice would be delivered as per the law of the land keeping in view the interest of the people of the state.

Informing that he would visit the periphery of the state, Nityanand Rai also assured to resolve all outstanding problems un-der the supervision of the Union home minister.

He also sought cooperation of all sections of people towards government's effort to re-store peace and normalcy while maintaining that the same could be restored only through people's participa-tion and support.

The press conference was also attended by BJP Mani-pur in-charge Sambit Patra, Transport Minister Khasim Vashum and state's education minister Th Basantakumar.

(With inputs from IANS) .

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