Fresh incidents of violence were reported in Manipur on Monday as unidentified miscreants set abandoned houses on fire in Imphal. According to images shared by the news agency ANI, houses in the New Lambulane region were set ablaze. News agency PTI stated that no injuries or deaths have been reported as a result of the arson.
In response to the situation, armymen were dispatched to the area and swiftly arrived at the scene. They fired teargas shells to disperse the mob, leading to minor injuries sustained by a few individuals. The local residents expressed their dissent by setting tires ablaze on the road. Subsequently, the curfew hours in Imphal East district, which had previously been relaxed, were intensified.
According to the Delhi unit of Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), they alleged that an ICI Church located on Chassad Avenue in Imphal was specifically targeted and set on fire by Meitei mobs.
Several weeks following a “Tribal Solidarity March” held on May 3, which aimed to express opposition to the Meitei community’s request for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list, the region experienced ethnic clashes. The Christian Kuki and Naga communities have voiced their disapproval of the BJP government led by N Biren Singh granting ST status to the Hindu Meitei people, who constitute a majority of the state’s population. The violent incidents resulted in the loss of more than 70 lives, necessitating the deployment of approximately 10,000 army and paramilitary personnel to restore normalcy in the northeastern state.
