GUWAHATI: Kuki-Zo group Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) in Manipur on Friday petitioned Union home minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention as the Manipur Director General of Police (DGP) allegedly issued an order for the transfer of over 100 Kuki-Zo tribal police personnel to Meitei-majority areas.
In a letter to Shah, the ITLF said the DGP’s order was unacceptable.
“It requires them (Kuki cops) to travel to Meitei districts and, if they survive the journey, be stationed with mostly Meitei police personnel. This is a death sentence as the government cannot guarantee their safety,” the ITLF wrote in the letter.
Viewing the order as a ploy by the state government to “target Kuki-Zo police personnel as they will not be able to report for duty in Meitei areas”, the ITLF requested Shah to immediately intervene and stop this “discriminatory” order before disciplinary action is taken against the Kuki-Zo cops.
The organisation pointed out that the ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis had led to a mass exodus of people, leading to a complete physical separation of the two communities from each other.
“Thousands of Kuki-Zo tribals recall how they barely survived being lynched by mobs in the state capital and adjoining valley areas as they fled to army camps or to the jungle to seek safety. The unlucky ones were lynched on the streets or in their homes by merciless mobs,” the ITLF said.
It added that personnel of central and state security forces belonging to the Kuki-Zo community were not safe either as evident from their evacuation to tribal districts in the wake of the violence.
Citing an alleged incident, the ITLF said three tribal security personnel, trying to report for duty, were beaten up mercilessly before being rescued by central security forces. The organisation said the incident served as a reminder of the danger faced by the Kuki-Zo community.
The ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3 last year, has so far claimed the lives of over 200 people and displaced some 60,000 others.