Aizawl: In a strong rebuttal to an allegation levelled by a leader of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Manipur-based Hmar Students’ Association (HSA) said that no temple was destroyed in the Hmar-dominated Tipaimuk area in southern Manipur during the recent ethnic clashes.
The student body also said that there was not a single temple erected in the area.
HSA, the lone student body and oldest organisation of the Hmar tribe, said in a statement that VHP leader Milling Parande had claimed in his interview that three big temples were destroyed in Tipaimuk.
The interview aired and published in a section of media recently was baseless and a false allegation, the statement said.
The student body said that Tipaimuk is a village as well as the name of an assembly constituency and a sub-division.
It claimed that there are 25 villages within the Tipaimuk sub-division (now Pasrbung sub-division) predominantly inhabited by the tribals, who are 100 per cent Christian by faith.
“There is no single temple either big or small in the entire Tipaimuk sub-division. We also want to clarify that there is only one Hindu temple in the entire Churchandpur town, which is standing safe and intact,” HSA said in its statement.
The student body further strongly blamed the alleged torching of houses, including churches, at New Checkon in Imphal East, on Tuesday.
It urged the government to prevent any anti-social activity and control the irate mobs as such activity could only escalate the already volatile situation.
Hmar is one of the major ethnic Zo or Mizo tribes.
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VHP secretary general Milind Parande had recently claimed that not only churches but around 40 Hindu temples were also destroyed by “Kuki militants”.
He said that around 11 big temples, comprising 4 temples in Tengnouupal and Moreh, 3 in Tipaimukh and 4 in Imphal East, were destroyed in the recent violent clash.
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