Guwahati: Meitei Christian Church Council Manipur (MCCCM), a unified body representing the Meitei Churches of Manipur, on Sunday asked the Manipur Tribal Forum Delhi (MTFD) to remove all names of Meitei churches from the list of churches that it mentioned in the draft interlocutory petition to be filed before the Supreme Court of Indian in next hearing.
The MTFD has already filed a writ petition (No 540/2023) in the SC seeking the Apex court’s intervention into the attacks against the Kuki community about two armed communal organisations “Arambai Tenggol” and “Meitei Leepun” in Manipur.
The writ petition was listed for hearing on May 8, and the second hearing was on May 17. The apex court will hear the petition in the first week of July after the Court’s summer vacation is over.
The MTFD is preparing a draft interlocutory application before the court during the third hearing mentioning how Meitei militants have burnt 251 churches during the violence and aron between the two communities which erupted on May 3.
“We have received a draft copy of the interlocutory application (IA) of Manipur Tribal Forum Delhi’s writ petition (No in the Supreme Court. It has come to our attention that the Kukis have included 70 of the 251 Meetei Churches that were burnt and dismantled during the communal clashes two communities in the list of Kuki churches,” MCCCM secretary general Senjam Kakanti said in a statement here on Sunday.
“We strongly condemn this attempt to align the Meitei churches with the Kukis in the aforementioned writ petition. We appeal to the petitioner of the writ petition Manipuri Tribal Forum Delhi to remove the names of the Meitei churches from the petition,” Kakanti said.
“The petitioner should be held responsible for any consequences that may arise from the inclusion of Meitei churches without the consent of the individual churches,” Kakanti also said.
“We are dedicated to upholding peace, unity and harmony among all communities and are committed to safeguarding the integrity of the state,” he added.
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Christian bodies in Manipur said that around 300 churches were burnt down during the communal violence between the two communities in Manipur.
According to unofficial estimates, the death toll surpasses 100, with over 20,000 houses destroyed and more than 50,000 individuals displaced within the region.
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