Kuki group demands removal of CRPF from their areas as Centre deploys additional paramilitary forces to Manipur

Guwahati: Angry over the killing of 10 persons belonging to Hmar community in an alleged encounter with CRPF and police in Manipur's Jiribam district, a forum of Kuki-Zo organisations on Thursday demanded complete removal of the CRPF from all Kuki inhabited areas in the conflict-torn state. 

In a statement, the Indigenous Tribal Advocacy Committee (ITAC), a forum of Kuki-Zo organisations in Jiribam and Pherjawl district, demanded an investigation into the killing of a woman belonging to Hmar community in Jiribam on November 7 and into the killing of 10 persons. 

Manipur police stated that 10 "armed militants" were killed in a "retaliatory attack" on November 8 after they attacked a CRPF camp and a police station that provided shelters to internally displaced persons belonging to the Meitei community. 

Kuki-Zo organisations, on the other hand, claimed that those killed were not militants but "village volunteers" belonging to the Hmar community, who were "defending" their villages against possible attacks by the Meiteis. They said that the "village volunteers" gathered following information about entry of armed men belonging to Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei radical group, into the police station but they were gunned down by the CRPF and Manipur police. Hmars are part of the greater Kuki-Zo communities.

The demand for removal of the CRPF comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs on November 12 decided to rush 200 additional companies (about 2000 personnel) of central paramilitary forces to contain violence in Manipur. This includes 15 companies of CRPF and five companies belonging to BSF. This will take the number of deployment of the central paramilitary forces to 218 companies (115 CRPF, eight RAF, 84 BSF, five SSB and six ITBP).

Kuki-Zo organisations asked why CRPF resorted to firing at the Hmar "village volunteers" even as they never engaged into a conflict with the central forces and considered CRPF as a buffer against possible attack by the Meiteis.   

Tension gripped Jiribam since November 7 when a 31-year-old Hmar woman teacher was allegedly raped and burned alive by suspected Meitei insurgents. Manipur has remained roiled in the Meitei-Kuki conflict since May last year in which nearly 240 people have been killed and over 60,000 others displaced. Sporadic incidents of violence have continued despite the presence of a large number of security forces including the army.