In the most recent act of violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, where battles between two factions over the demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category have been taking place, a crowd of over 1,200 people set a Union Minister’s house on fire last night. According to officials, Union Minister RK Ranjan Singh was not at the Imphal house at the time of the event.
Despite a curfew in Imphal, the mob was able to reach minister’s house in Kongba. According to officials, there were nine security escorts, five security guards, and eight more guards were on duty at the minister’s house at the time.
A member of the minister’s security team claimed that during the attack, the mob threw petrol bombs in all directions.
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“The crowd was too large for us to control, thus we were unable to stop the incident. Coming from all sides, including the front entrance and the back alley behind the building, they threw petrol bombs. Therefore, we were unable to manage the throng, according to escort commander L Dineshwor Singh.
Around 1,200 people, according to the escort commander, were a part of the crowd.
This is the second time a mob has attacked the minister’s house. Security forces fired into the air during the incident in May to scatter the crowd.
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After a “Tribal Solidarity March” was held throughout the hill districts on May 3 to oppose the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, fighting broke out in Manipur.
Tension over the displacement of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land had caused a number of smaller agitations before to the violence in Manipur.
In Manipur, the Meiteis make up the majority of the population, followed by the Naga and Kuki tribes.
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In order to explore how to restore peace to the violent northeast state of Manipur, RK Ranjan Singh, who is the Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, met with a group of intellectuals from the Meitei and Kuki communities last month. In a letter to the prime minister, the minister urged him to “identify and condemn” any local politicians who may be to blame for the unrest in Manipur.
No community or ethnic group should hold us accountable… Leaders frequently trample on the cordial relationships between ethnic groups in order to further their political objectives. Politicians with narrow minds frequently manipulate the feelings and lives of the common people. They have harmed civilization enough already. Their strategies cause unthinkable losses, as the current ethnic conflagration. Such neighbourhood leaders must be located and denounced, Mr. Singh argued in a letter he sent to PM Modi on May 21.
Conflicts between the Meiteis, who inhabit in and around the state capital Imphal valley, and the Kuki tribe, who have taken up residence in the hills, have claimed more than 100 lives since May 3. The conflict stems from the valley’s residents’ demand to be classified as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
