GUWAHATI: Tens of thousands of people hit the streets of Manipur's capital Imphal on Saturday and reaffirmed their stand against the “Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists”.
Drugs have been at the centre of the nearly three-month-long violent ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis in which nearly 150 people lost their lives and over 50,000 others were displaced.
The “mass rally against Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism” commenced from the THAU ground and passed through city thoroughfares before culminating at Hapta Kangjeibung, four kilometres away. Here, a public meeting was held.
The locals estimated that over one lakh people from different communities and leaders of various organisations participated in it. They said they had not seen such a huge turnout of people at any event in Imphal in recent years.
The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), which has been vocal against the menace of “Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism” ever since the eruption of the violence, organised the rally. The protestors adopted five resolutions.
They demanded an end to the present conflict and “extermination” of foreign “Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists”. They outright rejected the demand of Kukis for a separate administration and insisted on the implementation of the National Register of Citizens or NRC.
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“NRC must be fully implemented in Manipur,” the protestors demanded.
Further, they demanded that a special session of the Assembly is summoned by August 5 to adopt some action-oriented resolutions to save Manipur. They warned that if the session is not summoned by the given time, strong agitations would be followed according to people’s resolutions.
Finally, the protestors demanded that a memorandum should be submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of the first three resolutions.
Earlier, COCOMI convenor Jeetendra Ningomba had alleged that attempts were being made by fringe elements to distort Manipur’s image by lobbying with some institutions within and outside the country.
“Slowly, the true picture of those behind the violence is surfacing,” Ningomba had said, adding the world would soon realise the violence was instigated by the “Chin-Kuki illegal immigrants”.