Days after unrest in Moreh, efforts to send additional State police blocked by protesters in Tengnoupal

The Manipur government’s efforts to send additional State police to the town along the India-Myanmar border has now been blocked by around 300-400 women protesters.

Days after arson of empty homes of Meitei people in Moreh and brief gunfire, the Manipur government’s efforts to send additional State police to the town along the India-Myanmar border has now been blocked by around 300-400 women protesters, who have been sitting along the Imphal-Moreh Road (NH-102) in the Tengnoupal district. 

Moreh town is dominated by Kuki-Zo people and the small number of Meitei people in the area were among the first to be chased out of the hill areas when the ongoing conflict began between the two communities in early May. While the town already has the presence of Manipur Police, who are restricted within their camps, this latest stand-off with the State police has come as around 70-80 additional personnel were being sent to Moreh as reinforcement.

The Manipur Police on Saturday said in a tweet, “The plan is to move one Coy of MR/IRB led by CO 5th IRB to Moreh. But it was being halted at Tengnoupal.”

While the protesters in Tengnoupal, from the Kuki-Zo community, suspect that this could be an attempt to bring in radical Meitei outfits disguised as State forces into Moreh, the Manipur Police have called such allegations “misleading”. 

The Company of Manipur Rifles/India Reserve Battalion (MR/IRB) has, since Friday, been unable to move beyond Tengnoupal and are currently stationed near the 20th Assam Rifles camp.  

Meanwhile, Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey on Saturday made her second visit to relief centres in Churachandpur, where she met with the two of the Kuki-Zo women, who were stripped and paraded while being sexually assaulted by a mob on May 4. The Raj Bhawan in Manipur tweeted, “Significantly, to show her deepest sympathy to the two ‘sisters’ whose modesty were outraged publicly by unruly mob on May 4, the Governor personally met them and handed a cheque of ₹10 lakh each to their families.”

The Governor’s office also said that Ms. Uikey had made the visit with the message “to work together for restoration of peace, normalcy and harmony in the State”.