Kerosene poured by attackers inside Manipur BJP spokesperson Michael Haokip's house
Over two dozen people, some of them armed, vandalised the house of a BJP spokesperson in Manipur's Churachandpur on Sunday night. They also fired shots in the air, and set two rooms on fire, the BJP spokesperson T Michael Lamjathang Haokip told NDTV today. He said no one was injured.
Four families displaced by the violence in Manipur also live in four small structures at his family plot, Mr Haokip said.
Mr Haokip said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. He said it was the second time his house in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by some people who do not accept the Thadou tribe's distinct identity.
"Around 30 people barged in at 10.30 pm. They poured kerosene on the walls and burned two rooms. They also fired many rounds in the air to scare our neighbours and other residents in the neighbourhood," Mr Haokip told NDTV. "Everybody in the area is angry at the attackers," he said.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh strongly condemned the attack.
"The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice. I consider this personal harm being put on one of our recognized tribes as a direct challenge on the unity and the integrity of the State."
"Attacks on any particular community of the recognized tribes of Manipur as well as the attack on the family of the BJP Spokesperson are condemned in the strongest terms. We will initiate appropriate legal action against the culprits," he wrote on X.
Mr Haokip belongs to the family of a Thadou tribe village chief, under whose area some 70 families live in as many houses. Apart from their main family house, there are four small structures on the plot where people displaced by the ethnic violence are living.
"The attackers also threatened the displaced people to leave," Mr Haokip said.
The attack at the Churachandpur house of the BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe comes days after three MLAs from among the 10, who have been demanding a separate administration carved out of Manipur, clarified that they want their own tribes to be called by their correct names, instead of being associated only with the term "Kuki-Zo".
On social media, the three MLAs have received threats of boycott and other "consequences" for allegedly weakening the Kuki tribes' resolve to persuade the Centre to create a separate administration. One of the BJP MLAs told NDTV everyone should feel free to state facts about the tribe they belong to. "I fail to understand why threats are coming my way for simply saying to which tribe I and the people I represent belong," the leader told NDTV, requesting anonymity.
Mr Haokip is also a leadership team member of the Manipur-based Thadou Students' Association (TSA) and the newly formed Thadou Community International, or TCI, a global body with professionals from the Thadou tribe living in nine countries including the US, the UK, Norway, Australia, and Malaysia, among others, as members.
Right after the attack at Mr Haokip's house, a video appeared on social media of a man showing a gun and a bullet and threatening to kill Mr Haokip, the TCI said in a statement today condemning the attack at his family home in Churachandpur's Peniel village, 60 km from the state capital Imphal.
The TCI said the attack happened barely a few hours after Mr Haokip participated in a panel discussion in local media on the topic 'Kuki supremacy and its agenda.'
"It was also an incident due to the fallout of relentless attacks on Thadou community and Thadou leaders by the Churachandpur-based Kuki supremacist-made fake Thadou Tribe Council (TTC), who have been actively engaging in disinformation campaign and violent rhetoric against Thadou, even boasting to know the perpetrators of the violent attack on Michael Lamjathang's home last year," the TCI said.
"This is the second time his (Mr Haokip's) home has been attacked for being a Thadou leader, with the first attack with arson and gunshots by suspected armed Kuki militants on May 6, 2023, days after the Manipur violence broke in Churachandpur on May 3 last year. It is also to be noted that Michael escaped an assassination attempt on his life in Churachandpur on April 28, 2023," the TCI said in the statement.
On August 5, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had met representatives of several small tribes and heard their concerns about bigger tribes trying to suppress their identities. Mr Singh in a post on X said the smaller tribes strongly condemned alleged forgery by a man identified as Paominlen Haokip, who allegedly used fake signatures of the smaller tribes' representatives in a complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).
During the discussion and voting on demands for grants on the last day of the Manipur assembly session on August 12, the Chief Minister had said "violence was perpetrated by some, not all, people."
"Not every Thadou, Paite, Hmar had a hand in the violence. You have seen, Hmar people spoke so well (in the peace meeting), we had tears, they too had tears, that all this happened due to misunderstandings," Mr Singh said, referring to the August 1 peace meeting between Meitei and the Hmar tribe representatives in Jiribam, where they agreed to work for normalcy nearly two months after ethnic violence that began over a year ago reached the district bordering Assam.
The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes under the Kukis nomenclature - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.
The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.