CRPF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Manish Kumar Sachar at a relief camp in Manipur
Families living in a relief camp in Manipur's Kangpokpi district want to return home, provided there is guarantee of their safety, a senior officer of the central paramilitary force CRPF told news agency ANI.
CRPF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Manish Kumar Sachar visited the camps in Kangpokpi district's Thangkanphai village and Songpehjang, where over 100 families of the Kuki tribes have been staying since ethnic clashes began in May 2023.
"This is Saikul subdivision, a huge subdivision under Kangpokpi district. And this Songpehjang relief camp, where over 100 families are living. They are living peacefully. You can see children playing. But our objective and purpose is to ensure they return home as soon as possible," Mr Sachar told ANI.
"Their rehabilitation should be done. They should be given help to restart their lives. Many measures are being taken for them. For example, we are working to identify their agricultural fields and taking them to work on them, so that they can start living a normal life again," said the DIG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), whose battalions have taken over security duties in some areas in the Kuki-dominant hill districts Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, vacated by the Assam Rifles (AR). The two AR battalions have been sent to Jammu and Kashmir.
"You can see around. They are all peaceful. The children are playing. They need to go to schools, live normal lives," Mr Sachar said, pointing at the relief camp.
To a question about demands raised by the families living in the camps, Mr Sachar said, "They have no demand. They only want to return to normal, lead normal lives, without any attacks on them or threats."
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Over 220 people were killed in the ethnic clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki tribes - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.
While members of the Kuki tribes have left the state capital Imphal and other valley areas, Meiteis who had been living in the hill areas where the Kukis are dominant have come to the valley. Nearly 50,000 internally displaced people from both communities are living in relief camps.
Tension persists, however, in the foothills between the Kuki-dominant hill districts and the valley areas as both sides accuse each other of launching attacks.
The Kuki tribes want a separate administration to be carved out of Manipur, while the Meiteis do not want any division of territory, or harm to "territorial integrity".
"IDPs wishing to return home doesn't mean they don't have political demands. Security officials must stick to their job, not meddle in politics," Manipur BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip said in a post on X, referring to internally displaced people (IDPs).
The MLA's "not meddle in politics" swipe at the CRPF top officer comes days after Lieutenant General PC Nair (retired), the former Director General of the Assam Rifles, in a nearly 50-minute interview to News9 said the Manipur Police are divided on ethnic lines - between Meiteis and Kukis, and that "there is no Manipur Police; it is 'Meitei Police'. It is 'Kuki Police'."
The Kuki tribes had protested against the Centre's move to shift the two Assam Rifles battalions to Jammu and Kashmir.
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Mr Haokip is one of the 10 Kuki MLAs who have been speaking in the same chorus as the two umbrella groups that represent 25-odd Kuki-Zo insurgent factions, and separate civil society organisations. All of them have been demanding separation from Manipur.
Social media users from the Meitei community, reacting to Mr Haokip's post on the CRPF DIG's comment, alleged only those who want to keep the pot boiling have been objecting to attempts to return to a state of normalcy, and that it is the politicians who have political demands, not the displaced people who have been living together in peace for decades.
"Thousands of people from both communities want to return home under strict security and understanding of no more violence, for a start. I have been going from one camp to another, from Kuki to Meitei camps, if I may say that. Anyone who visits the camps will hear the same thing, that people want to go home," a senior officer who is looking after rehabilitation and relief matters near Bishnupur district's Moirang town told NDTV on phone, requesting anonymity.
"Ensuring safe return and rebuilding lives are not easy tasks, given the sharp ethnic divide, but it is possible with sincere efforts. Some elements know the return of peace means the failure of achieving their goal," the officer said.
Among a range of complex issues, the immediate cause that sparked the long chain of violence is often cited as the general category Meiteis' demand to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category.
The Kukis, who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram, want the separate administration citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.
With inputs from ANI