Kuki organiation condemns killing of Meitei women, children

PTI, IMPHAL/GUWAHATI, NOVEMBER 20, 2024 :  The Kuki Organisation For Human Rights Trust (KOHUR) has condemned the killing of six Meitei women and children by militants in Jiribam district and urged the administration to arrest those involved in the “heinous act” that sparked large-scale protests in the state. The KOHUR also demanded that the government also bring to book the people who killed a number of Kuki-Zo women and children since May last year when ethnic violence broke out in the northeastern state between the Meiteis and Kukis.

“The Kuki Organisation For Human Rights Trust (KOHUR) strongly condemns the killing of six Meitei women and children by armed miscreants in Jiribam district. The killing of fellow human beings irrespective of ethnicity or religion should be condemned by all,” the tribal body said in a statement.

“The Kuki-Zo remain steadfast in our commitment to not kill civilians even in times of war. We beseech the law enforcement agencies to find out the culprits behind the heinous acts,” the statement added.

Three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had gone missing from a relief camp in Jiribam after a gunfight between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants that resulted in the deaths of 10 insurgents on November 11. The six bodies were found in the Jiri river in Jiribam and Barak river in Cachar of neighbouring Assam over the past few days.

The KOHUR also claimed that attention is given by the state government and the national media only when Meiteis are killed. “…it has already happened countless times to the Kuki-Zo. Kuki-Zo women and children have been killed, burned and mutilated as if they were animals,” the statement said on Tuesday.

The Kuki organisation also demanded that law enforcement agencies investigate the deaths of a one-month-old baby and a seven-year-old boy who was “burnt alive” inside an ambulance along with his mother soon after the violence broke out in May 2023.

KOHUR also alleged that the 10 insurgents killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jiribam were Kuki-Zo volunteers who were shot from behind after having some conversation with the CRPF.

“The CRPF jawans responsible for killing fellow Indian citizens without mercy should be investigated and prosecuted for their crime against humanity while being on duty to protect them,” the statement said.

It maintained that Kuki-Zo women and children have been ‘killed, burned and mutilated’ several times over the last 18 months, but these cases have been ‘overlooked and ignored’, demanding that the ‘law must treat everyone without partiality’. More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence in the northeastern state since May 3 last year.