Imphal, Aug 3: At least 17 people, including few security personnel, were injured in clashes at Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts as the clashes took place between the mob and the security forces, who also fired tear gas shells on Thursday, officials said.

After the fresh troubles in Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts, the district authorities of Imphal East and Imphal West as precautionary measures cancelled the curfew relaxations, earlier announced from 5 a.m. in the morning to 8 p.m in the evening.

Before the clashes, the pre-planned mass burial of 30-35 dead bodies of Kuki-Zomi people, killed in Manipur’s ethnic violence, was postponed after the state’s High Court on Thursday ordered to maintain status quo at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district.

Union Minister of state for home Nityanand Rai in a letter to the tribal organisation Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) and the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of the Meitei community, on Thursday appealed to maintain peace and communal harmony in Manipur

“The Government of India is seized of the issue of last rites of mortal remains of those killed in ethnic violence in Manipur. Government of India appeals to all concerned to maintain peace and communal harmony and assures that it will spare no efforts to resolve the aforesaid issue amicably to the utmost satisfaction of all parties within a period of seven days,” Rai’s letter said.

The ITLF leaders on Wednesday announced that the burial of Kuki-Zo “martyrs” would be done on Thursday at Tuibuong in Churachandpur.

“On the request of the Home Ministry, we have postponed the mass burial, but we have placed five demands before the government,” ITLF spokesman Ginza Vualzong told the media.

The ITLF’s five demands include, legalisation of the burial site in Churachandpur, withdrawal of pro-Meitei state forces from all hill districts “for the safety of the Kuki-Zo communities”, speed up of creation of separate administration (equivalent to separate state) for the tribals, shifting of tribal jail inmates in Imphal to other states for their safety.

Earlier before the clashes, tension had been brewing since Thursday morning in Churachandpur, Bishnupur and adjoining districts as mobs comprising thousands of men and women came out on the streets to block the movement of security forces.

The mobs wanted to go to Tuibuong, the mass burial site in Churachandpur.

Security has been beefed up earlier in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, where tribal organisations have planned mass burial of slain Kukis on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Meitei organisations strongly opposed the tribal organisations’ mass burial move.

The leader of the COCOMI said that the “so-called Kuki leaders should not play politics over the dead bodies”.

“Every dead body of the Meitei community was being cremated at their native villages with due respect and recognition by their own near and dear ones. Likewise we expect the Kuki people to follow the same practice in performing the last rites of the dead persons,” a COCOMI leader said.

He said that encroaching of the government land is also a violation of laws and burying all together to newly create a mass grave at the abandoned Meitei villages would not only provoke the sentiments of the people in both sides but also remain as a symbol of permanent enmity among the villagers.

Since May 3, when the ethnic violence broke out, so far Kuki groups had never done anything that is acceptable to the law of the land, the COCOMI leader alleged.

The COCOMI requested the government to do something which would prove that the rule of law prevails in Manipur.

“We also request to check the identity of all the dead bodies too before being cremated at their respective village as per the law and confirm their citizenship,” the organisation said in a statement.

Also read: Meghalaya: BSF foils smuggling bid across India–Bangladesh border, seizes 2 cattle

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