Guwahati: The Manipur Tribal Forum sought protection via the Indian Army through an Interlocutory Application (IA) filed in the Supreme Court, saying that it cannot rely on the “empty assurances” of the Union of India as both the Centre and the State government “have embarked jointly on a communal agenda for ethnic cleansing” of the Kukis.
Live Law reported that the Forum said Kukis are being ethnically cleansed by an armed communal organisation and urged the Apex Court for protection as tribals cannot trust the state police forces.
The organisation argued that despite assurances given by the Solicitor General in the last hearing, no relief was granted so far.
“After the giving of these assurances, over 81 Kukis were killed, 237 churches and 73 administration building/quarter were burnt and 141 villages destroyed and 31,410 Kukis displaced from their homes. The assurances of the authorities are not useful anymore and made in a non-serious fashion and are not even intended to be completed,” the Application read.
While the assurances given by the counsel of the Union of India were “empty and meaningless”, the Forum hoped that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurances would not be the same. They said that Shah must convince the people that he is sincere.
The Forum expressed no confidence in the Commission of Inquiry constituted by the Centre under the head of former Gauhati HC CJ Ajai Lamba and prayed that it be quashed and replaced by a single-member commission comprising former Delhi High Court Chief Justice and Law Commission chairperson AP Shah.
The clash between the two communities-Kuki and Meitei, being portrayed in the media, it said, is far from the truth as the two co-existed despite their differences.
Arambai Tenggol, “a group that has the backing of state machinery” and the Meitei Leepun, “an organisation with Meitei nationalist agenda, are the two groups behind all the attacks,” it alleged.
The Forum also urged the need to have cold storage and immediate autopsy of piling dead bodies in the State. It also highlighted the inadequacy of the relief camps set in the State.
Through the IA, the Forum also presented that the law and order situation in the state is not improving as it continues to be under the control of the present CM, who is from the dominant community.
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It urged the Apex Court to direct the Indian Army to take control of the Churachanpur, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Imphal East, and Imphal West districts. It also sought the constitution of an SIT to independently investigate and prosecute those responsible for the assaults on the tribal community in Manipur.
The Forum’s IA was filed through Advocate Satya Mitra and drawn by Advocates Hetvi Patel and Kaoliangpou Kamei.
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