Aizawl: A tribal body in Manipur on Thursday sought security protection after houses and shops belonging to the Hmar-Mizo community were burned down by miscreants in three localities in Jiribam.
A statement issued by the Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Committee (ITAC), a body representing tribal people of Manipur’s Jiribam and Pherzawl district, alleged that at least four houses and three shops belonging to Hmar-Mizo tribal community were set on fire by Meitei miscreants and Meitei extremist group, Arrambai Tenggol, in Jiribam on Wednesday night
The tribal body demanded the authorities, who are in charge of law and order, to immediately arrest the perpetrators and give them stringent punishment.
It urged the authorities to arrange protection in at least 10 localities inhabited by the Hmar-Mizo-Kuki-Zomi community to prevent arson and stealing of properties from abandoned houses.
“We urge the competent authorities to immediately arrange a 24-hour vigil and patrolling by the Central security forces in and around the localities inhabited by the indigenous tribals of Hmar, Kuki and Zomi in Jiribam, to prevent further destructions and stealing of properties and items by Meitei miscreants and Arrambai Tenggol,” the ITAC said in the statement.
The tribal body said that 71 houses and a church belonging to the Hmar-Mizo-Kuki-Zomi community in Jiribam have been burned down, displacing more than 700 tribal people since June 6.
It further alleged that one person has been killed and another missing from the Jiribam district since the outbreak of ethnic violence between the majority community Meitei and the minority Kuki-Zo community in May last year.
Jiribam district had remained unaffected by the ethnic crisis for more than a year until June 6 when the mutilated body of a 59-year-old man from the Meitei community was found.
Although the suspect in the killing is yet to be verified, the Meitei mob, suspecting that it was the work of the Kuki-Zo people, resorted to violence and burned down several houses belonging to the minority tribal community in Jiribam on June 6.
In response, members of the Hmar-Mizo community also torched houses of the Meiteis, police outposts and a forest beat office.
ITAC said that the situation in Jiribam remained calm till May despite the killing of a Kuki teenager, whose body was found in the Jiri river near Muolzawl village in that month.