Kohima: The Council for Nagalim Churches (CNC), church body of the NSCN-IM, on Wednesday called on Manipur residents to rebuild places of worship that were destroyed as violence broke out in the state on May 3.
Through an open letter to the people of Manipur, the CNC said, “Now, what has been destroyed is our focus. The facade of religious intolerance has to be erased for good, and the site of destroyed churches, be it of Meiteis or Kukis, must be given back to the original owner for restoration”.
It claimed that many unruly people were on the grabbing spree to grab the lands of Christians where the churches once stood majestically tall.
“The expectation of the world at large over the Meitei Community is that they have to prove themselves demonstratively that they are a civilized people and not the other way round. There is one foremost important thing which all the Meiteis are bound to realize and admit that, the Meitei community is not exclusively of the Vaishnavite Hinduism and Sanamahism only as testified by the 236 burnt Meitei Churches of different denominations by the Meitei radicals. This is a fact, not an accusation,” it said.
Hoping that normalcy would return, the CNC said that the Meitei Community must exercise magnanimity and not allow insanity to take over the situation by resorting to forceful occupation of the holy worship places of the Christians and convert church premises into something that is not connected to the desire of the church owners.
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“What is also a matter of exigency is intimidation to minority Meitei, Kuki Christians by radicals must be controlled totally. Tolerance and a sense of humanity is extremely urgent to prevent escalation of violence spilled over into other areas,” the NSCN-IM church body said.
Churches, they said, do not carry any ethnic identity but are a symbol of religious freedom. It questioned why Manipur chief minister Biren Singh led government remained silent when the “smoke of the burning churches crossed the sky of Imphal valley”.
They then offered consolation to the people adversely affected by the violence.
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