Imphal: The two tribal Kuki-Zo bodies on Monday submitted a joint memorandum to the Governor of Manipur through Deputy Commissioner of Kangpokpi urging him to have a sympathetic look at the present situation and defer the state legislative assembly session.
The Committee on Tribal Unity, Sadar(CoTU) Hills Kangpokpi, and Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum(ITLF) jointly submitted the memorandum.
Earlier, the CoTU and ITLF, considering the alleged complete breakdown of law and order and “unconducive situation” for the Kuki-Zo MLAs to attend the assembly session, strongly opposed that convening the assembly session at this moment is devoid of logic and rationality and unacceptable.
The two tribal Kuki-Zo bodies urged the Governor of Manipur for a protracted action by declaring all the valley districts as “Disturbed Areas” and re-impose AFSPA in all the districts under the 19 police stations to restore law and order in the state.
It also stated that since May 3, the unabated attacks on Kuki-Zo villages in the peripheral valleys remain unchecked while incidents of attacks and death tolls have been in the Kuki-Zo dominated areas or Kuki-Zo villages. Factual reports of incidents have always been in the peripheral valley areas which are either Kuki-Zo dominated hills or Kuki-Zo dominated areas. The attacks have always been one-sided from the Meitei community.
The memorandum also stated that relentless and well-orchestrated hate messages through social media platforms and local News TV Channels inciting communal hatred against the Kuki-Zo community is prevalent as fabrication of news and distortion of facts by the valley-based local News TV Channels have played a major role by shaping the narratives and radicalizing the common people to target the
Kuki-Zo community in Manipur.
“In view of these circumstances, we will not allow our ten elected representatives (Members of Legislative Assembly) to attend the One Day Session, i.e. the 4th Session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly which is to be held on August 29 at 11 a.m. nor any upcoming sessions in the future whether in person/physical or through any other means including digital/video conferencing until and unless the aforementioned points are addressed first and the Centre Government takes cognisance of our physical separation from the valley districts”, stated CoTU and ITLF in its memorandum.