Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in Manipur, but not a single word on about what happened in Phailengmol Area three days ago

The Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, visited Manipur for an election campaign for the BJP candidate Mr. Thounaojam Basanta Kumar for the I-Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on Monday.

During his short visit, he spoke at length in Hindi, a language only a few people follow since Hindi movies and songs have been banned by Meitei terrorists [VBIGs] for decades. However, there was no mention of what happened in the Phailengmol Area on Saturday, or during the initial days of the ongoing violence.

The Phailengmol Area of Saikul Sub-division in Kangpokpi district, officially inaugurated as Island sub-division in 2016, has close to 15 Kuki villages, all of which were burnt down in May last year by Meitei terrorists and mobs supported by state forces, and hence were abandoned for months.

It is in this area that not only many lives were lost but the two Kuki-Zo women were paraded naked and sexually assaulted in May last year, a video of which shocked the world in July.

According to a noted journalist, in the recent past, many Kuki villages in this area have been trespassed by Meitei groups for various activities including illegal quarrying and sand-mining. In one such village called Bongjang, the villagers had returned to occupy their land and set up two bunkers at the edges of their village with a total of 15 of them keeping guard to avoid outsiders from entering.

The same journalist argued that, technically speaking, guarding buffer zones such as this area is the responsibility of the central forces as Amit Shah had promised in his visit to Manipur last year. However, since the Central forces are unable to guard the whole stretch of land, in this case, the entire Island Block section are off-limits, the villagers had to volunteer to guard their lands as anything can happen from the Valley-side.

The attempt by the villagers to return to their villages had often led to a confrontation with the nearby Meitei villagers, with shots being exchanged whenever the Meitei groups attempted to trespass into the area, which finally resulted into a full-blown gunfight including heavy bombing from the Central Forces on Saturday resulting in the death of two Kuki village guards.

The volunteers who escaped the deadly bombing on Saturday said that they first spotted drones above their village in the past one week. This was followed by a few gunshots exchanged on April 12, but it was in the early morning of the 13th that the Kuki village volunteers came under heavy firing from Moirangpurel side, the nearby Meitei village. It may be noted that these Meitei areas are the stronghold of various VBIGs. It is also a place where the local MLA Mr. Th. Shyamkumar, who is linked with various armed groups, had mass support as he also owned a plot of land there. It may also be recalled here that it was under the leadership of this MLA and the Meira Paibis that a mob forcefully snatched away 12 KYKL terrorists from the hands of the Army.

Earlier, videos of Arambai Tenggol terrorists moving towards Moirangpurel were also uploaded on Facebook pages, one of which says, 'Go to Moirangpurel'.

To go back to the unfortunate incident, exchange of fire continued for a couple of hours before the bunkers where the Kuki volunteers were at, came under heavy attack using bombs and explosives, allegedly by the Bihar Regiment. It may be noted that, the Bihar Regiment has come to this area just recently and one thing they suspiciously did was their meeting with the area leaders of the Arambai Tenggols sometime about a month ago. Since the area is dominated by VBIGs and powerful people like Shyamkumar, the officials of the Regiment might have been bribed by the Meitei people there. Otherwise, the usually neutral central forces such as the Army will never take sides openly and stain the sanctity of the Indian Army who has been doing a commendable job to date.

Unfortunately, two Kuki village volunteers were left to die on the spot from the alleged bombing by the Bihar Regiment as all the other village guards had scattered for fear of their lives. If the Kuki volunteers had known that their bunkers might be bombed by the Bihar Regiment, they would have abandoned the place for good.

Soon after the incidents, videos, and images began to emerge where the bodies of the two village guards were stabbed, dragged around, and were chopped into pieces. Many of these videos and images are now viral on social media which are too disturbing to even share. However, they are being shared with congratulatory messages by members of the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei public without any sign of remorse.

The continued dehumanisation of the Kuki-Zo community has happened at the behest of the BJP at the centre and state, who continues to even refuse to acknowledge the scale of what's happening in the state.

All this is happening during an election season and yet it is nowhere on the news headlines. How is it that human beings are mutilated and chopped-off are not worth for news channels, or to us as a people? Since most of the national media are now owned by the BJP and their sympathisers, only those news that will garner votes for the party gets prime-time shows.

Also, how is it that the Union Home Minister visited the state, spoke for an hour, but did not utter a word about what happened in the state three days ago? How is it even possible that even the Congress, which is the main opposition party in the state and the country, too, refused to even condemn such barbarity?

And here, we are talking about the elections for the largest democracy in the World. What a Joke!

(Courtesy: KSO Bulletin, Thingkho le Malcha, Issue no. 211, 16th April 2024).