The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) has vehemently condemned the recent murder of two Kuki-Zo individuals, namely Thangin Baite of Thawai Kuki Village and Thangboimang Khongsai of Shankai Village, by armed Tangkhul militants, purportedly of NSCN-IM operating in the areas, and also injuring one individual who sustained a bullet injury on his leg and is at present undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
Late Thangin Baite and Thangboimang Khongsai, who had gone to repair their waterways for their paddy fields, remained untraceable until their dead bodies were recovered this morning by a group of onlookers.
According to a press release of CoTU, the armed Tangkhul militants have been instigating the unsuspecting Tangkhul villagers to stake claims over every land belonging to Kuki-Zo villagers in the Ukhrul district based on their overdriven ethnocentric narrative against the Kuki-Zo community. This had led to the razing of Litan Sareikhong, a Kuki village, and adjoining villages a couple of months back. To resolve these issues, the newly appointed Dy CM, Dr. Dikho, along with the CSOs from both communities, could not resolve the matter, as the Tangkhul community did not comply with the peace initiation then.
It said that the March 11 incident at Thawai Kuki is not the first of such incidents but a culmination of a fabricated narrative to evict the Kuki-Zo communities from the Ukhrul district by unprovoked firing at the cultivators in the paddy fields to instill fear psychosis in the area.
The Committee on Tribal Unity questioned the rationality of the formation of the popular government in the erstwhile state of Manipur if not to resolve such misunderstanding and deter such “armed gangsters” such as the Zaliengrong United Front Kamson or the NSCN-IM, who run amok undeterred by the law of the land.
Therefore, the concerned authority is beseeched to immediately apprehend the culprits involved in these heinous crimes within 48 hours, or else our village volunteers will be compelled to take preemptive measures to defend and protect our land and our people, and at no point in time should the Committee on Tribal Unity or any civil society organization be held responsible for any action taken, it said.
