MANIPUR, India
Eleven people have been shot
dead and 14 injured in a fresh outbreak of ethnic violence that has gripped the
northeast Indian state of Manipur.
The latest killings come
little more than a month after an earlier bout of unrest that saw entire
villages burned to the ground, killing dozens and leaving tens of thousands
homeless.
Since then nearly 3 million
people in the state have been largely cut off from the rest of the country,
after the government blocked internet services and restricted travel in an
effort to contain the violence.
In the latest bout of unrest,
the violence has been so extreme that many bodies have been hard to identify,
doctors and senior management officials at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of
Medical Sciences (JNIMS) and Raj Medicity Hospital in the state’s capital
Imphal told CNN.
“The bodies that have come in
have not been in a good state. There were many cuts, wounds, and scratches all
over,” the director of JNIMS, Dr. Deben, said.
“We are still conducting a
post-mortem and trying to confirm the identity of the last victim, but his face
is badly mutilated.”
Manipur, a lush, hilly state
which borders Myanmar, is home to an ethnically diverse group of Sino-Tibetan
communities, each with their own language, culture and religion.
Like Kashmir in the north, it
was once a princely state under British rule, and only incorporated into India
in 1949, two years after the country gained independence.
Many within the state
disagreed with that move and ever since then the region has grappled with
violent insurgencies and ethnic conflicts that have resulted in hundreds of
deaths and injuries over the decades.
The current unrest has seen
some of the worst violence in recent years and has sparked criticism of Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which
governs Manipur.
Modi has yet to comment
publicly on the violence plaguing the state for weeks now while the home
minister Amit Shah’s visit to Imphal late last month has done little to quell
the tensions.
Opposition politicians have
accused Modi and the BJP of showing a lack of urgency in tackling the problem
and of failing to stop the bloodshed.
“None of the actions taken by
the state government or the Union government have inspired confidence in the
people of Manipur,” the country’s main opposition party, the Indian National
Congress, said in a statement Monday, demanding Modi “break his silence” and
visit the state.
CNN has reached out to the
prime minister’s office and the BJP for a comment.
An earlier bout of violence
broke out in Imphal on May 3 after thousands of students, mostly from the Kuki
tribe, took part in a rally against the majority Meiti ethnic community, who
were demanding special tribal status that would allow them to buy land in the
hills and give them more opportunity for government jobs.
The Meitei community, a
largely Hindu ethnic group who account for about 50% of the state’s population,
have for years campaigned to be recognized as a scheduled tribe.
If they are given this status,
other ethnic groups – many of whom are Christian – say they fear they will not
have a fair chance for jobs and other benefits.
The Metei community dominates
positions within the state government, and have been privy to more economic and
infrastructural advancement than the other ethnic groups.
They mostly live in the more
developed but geographically smaller Imphal Valley, while Kuki groups live
predominantly in agriculturally rich and geographically larger protected hill
districts.
The Kukis fear the change in
status could result in their steady removal from a protected area they have
occupied for decades and leave them vulnerable to exploitation.
No comments:
Post a Comment