Members of the Kuki tribe hold a rally in remembrance of violence victims (AFP)
A potential violent face-off between groups of Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribes was averted today after the Manipur High Court in a 6 am hearing ordered the authorities to ensure status quo between the two sides over the matter of burying bodies of ethnic riot victims.
Kuki-Zo tribes planned to bury some 35 bodies of tribal victims of the ethnic clashes at Torbung, an area that saw intense violence in May and June.
The valley-majority Meiteis opposed the mass burial as they suspected the Kuki tribe would lay claim to new land by turning it into a remembrance site.
A Meitei civil society group then filed a petition overnight with the high court. During this time, large groups of Meiteis had started moving towards the burial site in protest, while the Kukis dug in, leading to an extremely volatile situation. All this happened on Wednesday midnight.
Acting Chief Justice MV Muralidharan heard the urgent petition and passed an order at 6 am to ensure peace is maintained.
The high court ordered the central and the state governments to ensure status quo remains on both sides over the burial site dispute. The court ordered the authorities to take "effective steps" to maintain law and order and told all the parties involved in the dispute to settle the matter peacefully.
The court also told representatives of the Kuki-Zo tribes that they can ask the government for land to bury the dead within a week.
The petition was filed by the International Meiteis Forum.
A copy of the interim order available with NDTV shows the matter was taken up for hearing on Wednesday. The court had told the state government to file a report on Thursday about its stand on the status of the land for the mass burial. The matter was then posted for hearing on Thursday in a bench of Justices A Bimol Singh and A Guneshwar Sharma.
However, the court registry sent a note to the Acting Chief Justice, saying Justice Singh would not be available due to a personal inconvenience.
At 5 am, the government's lawyer went to the Acting Chief Justice's official residence in Imphal and requested for the matter to be taken up urgently, as both sides were in a potential face-off with chances of violence breaking out any moment.
Accepting the request, the Acting Chief Justice took up the matter by 6 am, gave the interim orders and posted the matter for hearing on August 9.