GUWAHATI: The Zomi Council Steering Committee (ZCSC) on Thursday came down heavily on the Central government for exclusion of Meitei-dominated areas from the purview of disturb area status under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) saying that this has exposed the partisan mindset and discriminatory policies of the Manipur government.
Six months after the AFSPA was withdrawn from the entire state, the Centre on Wednesday declared the entire state a ‘disturbed area’ under the AFSPA for six months in the wake of the prevailing law and order situation.
However, the status will not be implemented in areas under the jurisdiction of 19 police stations including the capital Imphal.
On March 24, AFSPA was removed from areas under the jurisdiction of Wangol, Leimakhing, Nambol and Moirang police stations.
The 19 police station areas include: Imphal, Lamphel, City, Singjamel, Seekmai, Lamsang, Patsoi, Wangoi, Porompat, Heigang, Lamlai, Iribung, Leimakhong, Thoubal, Bishnupur, Nambol, Moirang, Kakching and Joribam.
The Central government, in a notification, said that the ‘violent activities of various extremist/insurgent groups warrant the use of Armed Forces in aid of civil administration in the entire state’.
In a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, SCSC said the AFSPA was extended only to ancestral tribal territories of Manipur by declaring these areas as disturbed areas.
“The exclusion of Meitei territories and Meitei-dominated areas from the disturbed areas status once again exemplified the Meitei government’s deep-seated discrimination against the Scheduled Tribes (STs0 of the state,” the memorandum stated.
“The excluded areas such as Moirang and Leimakhong, are areas where armed radicals combined forces with the alleged proscribed Meitei insurgent groups set up their bases every time they undertook offensive attacks on Zo villages with the aid and direct involvement of Manipur state force personnel,” the memorandum alleged.
“It has only been the Meitei territories that have witnessed violence after violence since May 3 leading to the imposition of curfews in these areas; the few areas in the Zo tribal territories that have witnessed violence were only due to the radical groups trying to attack and cause mayhem in these Zo settlements on the Zo-Meitei territorial boundary areas,” it said.
“Despite the reality of prevailing peace in the tribal territories vis-a-vis the continuing law and order lapses in the Meitei territories, the MHA notification is no surprise in as much as it established the hatred towards the minority tribal communities by those in power,” they also said.
Notably, the exempted Meitei-dominated areas have witnessed more than 80 per cent of the 175-odd killings since May 3. AFSPA, which covered most of the state since 1980, was withdrawn from the Imphal Municipality area in 2004, and fully withdrawn from all Meitei-dominated territories on April 1, 2023.
“The AFSPA could be the only way to ensure timely recovery of the thousands of arms and ammunitions looted from State armouries and avert any impending national security crisis in the process. Instances of the arrests of proscribed armed Meitei militants in the Valley Area and their subsequent release due to apparent public pressure by Meira Paibis – the radical Meitei women group, and the arrest of Moirangthem Anand Singh by the National Investigation Agency in a case related to a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar-based leadership of Meitei terror outfits to wage a war against the government of India by exploiting the current ethnic unrest in Manipur is of serious concern,” they also said.
Rejecting the discriminatory notification, the memorandum also said the actual disturbed areas of Manipur should rather come under the Armed Forces Special Power Act and not vice versa.
The organisation appealed to the centre for the extension of AFSPA throughout the state and hastening of the ongoing political talks with the UPF and KNO so that an administrative setup for the Zo people in the form of a Union Territory with a Legislature totally separate from Manipur be created at the earliest to prevent further loss of lives and property before the impact of the ethnic cleansing spreads like wildfire across the region.
