Churachandpur: Tens of thousands of the Kuki-Zo ethnic community on Wednesday took to streets in Churachandpur district and voiced against the atrocities meted out to their people by Manipur government in the ongoing ethnic crisis.
Organised by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, protesters from every corner of the district marched from three locations – Kawnpui Public Ground, Muolvaiphei Public Ground and Pearsomun Public Ground and converged at Tuibuong Peace Ground near the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
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A person in a wheelchair was seen leading the mass rally held at Churachandpur. Shouting slogans against the state government, the protestors demanded investigating agencies Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe cases of atrocities against tribals by the Meitei community.
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The tribal body stated that the rally was held to protest the barbaric ways in which innocent Kuki-Zo civilians are murdered by Meitei mobs and the cherry-picking of cases by police and central investigating agencies like the CBI and NIA to appease the majority Meitei community at the expense of minority tribals.
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“While cases blamed on Kuki-Zo tribals are swiftly taken up and arrests promptly made, cases involving tribal victims are either not taken up or are stalled indefinitely,” alleged the ITLF.
During the rally, the ITLF and the entire Kuki-Zo community demanded the CBI of the NIA to immediately probe or fast track the alleged killing of 22 people of the Kuki community, including a burning of ambulance where a seven-year-old Tonsing Hangshing, his mother and aunt on it and brutal killing of David Thiek by Meitei mob while assailants posted on social media a photo of David’s severed head.
“Many more innocent Kuki-Zo civilians were brutally murdered by Meitei mobs, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun because of their ethnicity. The central government should acknowledge the situation for what it is-an ethnic cleansing of minorities by the majority,” added the ITLF.
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The Kuki-Zo protestors also submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Praveen Sood, Director, CBI requesting them to handle the ongoing ethnic strife between the two communities with equity, unprejudiced and equivalently and recommend the CBI to probe into/investigate into the nature. The tribal forum also appealed the Union minister to unequivocally delve into the plight and woes of the Kuki-Zo tribal populace correspondingly, reads the memorandum.
Earlier, this week, the Kuki-Zo community also staged a protest over educational negligence of the Kuki tribal students and demanding access to education.
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