An arrest, crackdown and deep distrust: Manipur fire had been simmering for over a year

But the first flashpoint came in the form of the arrest last year of a human rights activist from Churachandpur, the tribal district that’s the epicentre of the current conflict. Mark T Haokip was arrested by the Manipur Police on May 24, 2022, from his home in Delhi under various sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over his social media posts that allegedly promoted communal disharmony. In 2021, three FIRs had been registered against him over these posts, but his arrest came after he asserted Kuki rights over two hills, Mt Koubru and Mt Thangjing, which are considered sacred by the Meiteis.

The arrest led to massive protests in Churachandpur, fuelled by outrage over Chief Minister N Biren Singh calling Haokip a “Myanamarese”, a charge his family refuted, saying their roots in the state can be traced back in records to even before the British came to India. Haokip was granted bail on May 28 this year.

Members of Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) take part in a protest rally as a mark of protest against the incidents of violence in Manipur. (PTI)

This was followed by another flashpoint over the same hills, when a group of Meiteis visiting the Thangjing Hills were allegedly prevented from going to the top by some local Kuki men. “Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers had to eventually ensure access for Meiteis. They also planted some saplings there. The Thangjing hills are sacred for Meiteis who have been going there for centuries. No one can claim them as theirs,” said a BJP MLA considered close to Biren Singh.

Around the same time, beginning August 2022, the Biren Singh government issued notices claiming that 38 villages in the hill districts of Churachandpur and Noney were illegal as they had come up in protected forest areas – a development that angered Kukis who claim that the declaration was made without proper notification. This, along with a government drive to destroy poppy cultivation in the hills, would later lead to violence when the government began an eviction drive in March this year.

However, before this, Singh, who had won a sweeping majority for a second term as CM, had begun facing a problem of plenty. With 54 NDA MLAs in the 60-seat Assembly, it was not easy to accommodate ambitions. Coupled with Singh’s leadership style that some saw as abrasive, this led to a quiet rebellion within the party.

By April this year, four BJP MLAs had resigned from the state government. Many camped in Delhi to express their displeasure with Singh to the central leadership. As speculation ran rife, in mid-April, the CMO had to come out and declare there was “no crisis”. Only, the next day, another MLA resigned.

Crackdown on poppy, ‘illegal villages’

Before these troubles began, the state had seen the rise of two hardline Meitei organisations, the Meitei Leepun and the Arambai Tenggol. The latter, sources said, was started in 2020 as a cultural outfit, but has been accused of being at the forefront of the attack on Kukis in the ongoing conflict.

Vehicles in flames after violence broke out during the ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ called by All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM), in Imphal, May 4, 2023. (PTI Photo)

With his party and society in churn, last year, Singh launched an operation against poppy cultivation in the hill districts and cracked down on ‘illegal villages’ in tribal areas. According to the government, these operations were necessitated due to the influx of Kuki-Chin tribes from Myanmar who were fleeing an oppressive Junta.

A committee set up by CM Singh under Letpao Haokip, a tribal BJP MLA from Tengnoupal, had identified more than 2,000 “illegal immigrants” in the first phase of its survey in the hills.

The government also accused village chiefs in the hills of settling the illegal immigrants by creating new villages. Both the poppy cultivation and the settlement of villages were causing massive deforestation, the government claimed.

The magnitude of both these problems has been disputed by Kukis, who have claimed that they have been blown out of proportion to evict legitimate Kuki populations from their land in order to grab their natural resources.

“Kukis felt targeted because poppy cultivators are very small players in the entire drug racket in Manipur. The cartel owners are the ones sitting in Imphal against whom the government actually took no action,” a senior security establishment officer said.

In an affidavit filed in the Manipur High Court in July 2020, then Additional Superintendent of Police, Narcotics and Affairs of Border Bureau, Thounaojam Brinda, had accused CM Singh and a top state BJP leader of allegedly putting pressure on the department to drop the case against a person accused in a drug seizure raid which took place in June 2018.

According to government sources, of the 72 deaths in the first three days of the violence, an overwhelming number was of Kukis. (Express photo)

Singh, however, kept pushing the envelope. Following violence during an eviction drive in Kangpokpi district in March this year, Singh declared withdrawal of the state from the tripartite Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with Kuki militant organisations, though the Centre was in the final stages of inking a peace deal with the groups.

Adding fuel to the fire came the April 14 order of the Manipur High Court, which asked the state government to send to the Centre its recommendations for grant of ST status to Meiteis.

The April 14 order came on a petition that the Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union filed in the High Court seeking directions to the Manipur government to submit a recommendation to the Union Ministry for Tribal Affairs for the inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the ST list of the Constitution as a “tribe among tribes in Manipur”.

Observing that “the petitioners and other Unions are fighting long years for inclusion of Meetei/Meitei community in the tribe list of Manipur”, a single-judge Bench of the court directed the government to submit its recommendation after considering the case of the petitioners, “preferably within four weeks” of receipt of the order.

A spiral of violence

Days before the May 3 violence, on April 27, a mob set fire to an open gym in Churachandpur that was to be inaugurated by the CM the next day. The following day, a mob torched a forest office in the district in protest against eviction drives.

Security personnel during a combing operation in sensitive areas of Manipur on June 7, 2023. (PTI)

According to a report prepared by the state government, as a Tribal Solidarity March was announced by tribal groups in all hill districts against the HC order on ST status to Meitei, Meitei Leepun, a radical Meitei civil society organisation, announced a “counter blockade” in the Valley in protest against the use of abuse language against Biren Singh. This was perceived by Kukis as a ploy to prevent Kuki people from the Valley from joining the protest march.

As the protest march began on May 3, some incidents of scuffle between Meiteis and Kukis were reported from parts of the hills and a few forest offices were reported to have been burnt down. Things began to turn ugly around 2.15 pm that day after a tyre was seen burning along the plaque of the Kuki War memorial gate near Torbung, kilometers ahead of Churachandpur. Around the same time, police found two bodies in Kangvai village, a kilometre away from Torbung. Following this, massive crowds began building up on the Torbung-Kangwai stretch of the Imphal-Churachandpur highway.

Between 3 pm and 3.30 pm, police reported burning of houses in Torbung and Kangvai belonging to both communities. Around 3.30 pm, some churches in the largely Meitei district of Bishnupur were reported to have been burnt down. Around 5.30 pm, a clash between Meitei and Kuki people was reported in the areas between Bishnupur and Churachandpur.

At 5.30 pm, a mob looted weapons from Singhat police station in Churachandpur. As violence escalated, weapons were later looted from multiple police stations and special forces armouries in Imphal Valley – over 4,000 weapons were looted in May itself. By 7 pm, both sides were burning each other’s houses and killing each other.

Tension between the two communities has simmered for decades but, on the ground, over the last one year, a set of incidents and the N Biren Singh-led government’s response have brought the fault-lines to the fore. (PTI)

During this period, what fuelled Meitei anger against Kukis in the Valley was a rumour that a Meitei woman had been gangraped and another killed with a spade and her eyes gouged out. Meitei groups soon went on the rampage in Imphal Valley – according to government sources, of the 72 deaths in the first three days of the violence, an overwhelming number was of Kukis.

Sources in the state administration said the rumours of gangrape and murder of Meitei women were later found to be false. “Despite an internet shutdown, rumours kept getting circulated through calls and word of mouth and both sides felt they were merely reacting to atrocities committed by the other side. The state was then thrown into a spiral of violence which has not stopped till date,” said a state government official.

For someone who rode to his poll victory on the back of a campaign called “Go to Hills” — a drive by the state government to focus on development projects in the neglected hill regions — Singh’s fall in the eyes of the hill people has been rather dramatic. The climb ahead may be tougher than it was a year ago.