Imphal, September 13: The Zomi Council Steering Committee (ZCSC) submitted a memorandum to the President of India on Tuesday, September 12, highlighting the current situation and possible solutions to ensuring sustainable peace in the region.

The memorandum shed light on the ongoing ethnic cleansing pogrom which started on May 3, 2023 under the apparently evident patronage of the majoritarian Manipur government.

“The thousands of unrecoverable looted arms and ammunition compounded by reports and video evidence of proscribed Meitei rebels and surrendered Meitei insurgents fighting alongside the Meitei volunteer stormtroopers (Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun) under the guise of Manipur State Police Force only underscores the absence of political will to rein in the aggressor community, i.e., the Meiteis,” the memorandum stated.

It also mentioned instances where armed Meitei men impersonating Manipur police personnel and Commandos engaged in gun battles with central security forces, with Meira Paibis, the divisive and radicalised Meitei women, group-creating diversions and organising blockades in order to distract the central security forces, citing examples of the recent Pallel incident and today’s ambush on three Zo individuals by Meitei armed miscreants between the villages of Ireng and Kharam Vaiphei as a case in point.

In addition to instances of Meitei media twisting facts with the aim to demonise the Assam Rifles, the Indian Army, and the central security forces, the memorandum also mentioned non-local people being frisked at Imphal Airport and detained for hours for questioning whether they would be visiting Zo territories and whether they were carrying any goods or medicines meant for internally displaced Zo people.

It also mentioned an instance where such non-locals were advised to turn back from the airport when they admitted that they would be visiting relief camps in Lamka, well within the Zo territorial boundary.

The memorandum also stated how the use of government-issued mortars by armed Meitei groups for bombing Zo villages is no less atrocious than the Aizawl Bombing Incident of 1966 mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament on August 10, 2023.

The memorandum highlighted some important points:

1. Conduct physical verification of all Manipur commandos and police personnel or temporarily disband them till the violence fully subsides;

2. Non-removal of existing security personnel from their current locations; in the case of removal from the Valley Area, the same personnel must be shifted to the buffer zones created between the Meitei and Zo territories.

3. Hasten the ongoing political talks with the UPF and KNO so that a separate administrative setup for the Zo people in the form of a Union Territory with a legislature be created at the earliest to prevent further loss of lives and property.

Also read: Assam: Drug inspector alleges assault by doctors at SMCH in Cachar

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