Sekmai body demands security cover to rehabilitate
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, August 02 2023:
Raising objection against deployment of CRPF at Bethel village while terming it as a selective step by the government, Sekmai Kendra Protection Committee has demanded the government to provide security protection to Meetei villagers so that they could return to their ancestral home without any threat from Kuki militants.
Addressing a press meet held at Ima Panthoibi community hall at Lairensajik on Wednesday, committee convenor Nungleppam Bobi said that Kuki militants have been carrying out armed attacks on Meetei villages in the foothill areas of Sekmai assembly constituency.
Bethel Kuki village is a key stronghold of Kuki militants and deploying CRPP personnel as protective measure for the Kuki village is irrational.
They will oppose any such move until attacks by Kuki militants cease and they are flushed out, he said.
Bobi also demanded security protection for Meetei villages if the government wants to deploy security personnel in the Kuki village so that the Meetei villagers could rehabilitate in their own homes.
They have submitted memorandum to the chief minister to deploy MR and IRB in the foothill villages but so far, the government has been ignoring their plight, he added.
The convenor further informed that they had also raised demands to the government to remove bunkers in the hills of Koutruk and flush out the Kuki militants manning those bunkers.
Amid such demands from the Meetei side, the government ignored their appeal and took up the measure to deploy CRPF in the Kuki villages, which rather comes as a surprise to the villagers, he contended.
Bobi also strongly objected the proposed plan for Kuki groups to convert a particular place inside the jurisdiction of Torbung village into a cemetery of Kuki militants and demanded the government to prevent the provocative plan of the Kukis.