May 3, 2023 to Jan 3, 2025 Kangpokpi outrage
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May 3, 2023 and January 3, 2025. The connect between the two would not have missed the eye of any keen observer. Perhaps the only major difference may be that while in 2023 the targets were Meitei settlements at Torbung and Churachandpur in 2025 the target was obviously Kangpokpi police station or the State police. While the scene in 2025, complete with all the gun wielding elements, have been reported even in the media houses located in other parts of the country, no one, other than the Imphal based media have reported on gun wielding elements leading the march of destruction in 2023. And that is how the violence started. The first seed of the violence was sown at Torbung and Chura- chandpur and Imphal and the valley areas retaliated only late in the evening. The Sangai Express has already recounted multiple times how a former Kuki MLA dropped in at the office of this newspaper on May 3, 2023 in the evening, all proof that Imphal retaliated only late in the evening. Like on May 3, 2023 the violence that unfolded at Kangpokpi on January 3, 2025, was engineered by the gun toting elements, in full battle fatigues and cheered on by the womenfolk and the townfolks. The SP of Kangpokpi was injured in the attack on the police station and the timing of the attack also seems to have been prepared well in advance. Kangpokpi and the Kuki militants went on the offensive after new Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla had just taken oath as the 17th Governor of Manipur. And true to the arrangement carried out by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a high level security meeting was convened by the newly sworn in Governor sans the Chief Minister the next day. Details of the high level security meeting are not available but surely the Kangpokpi outrage would have featured prominently during the meeting, for here is a case of a police officer being injured with fully armed Kuki militants leading the attack and being cheered on by the womenfolk and others. Nearly 48 hours since the Kangpokpi outrage and no report has come in of any arrest being made much less a crackdown launched to pull up the gun toting elements. The only information that has come after the Kangpokpi outrage is that the authority concerned has agreed to withdraw the Central Armed Police Force units stationed at Uyokching bordering Imphal East and Kangpokpi districts. Looks more like a case of the authority concerned caving in to the demands of the Kuki militants and vocalised by the Committee on Tribal Unity !
Delhi continues to handle the Kuki militants and their frontal organisations such as CoTU and the Churachandpur based Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) with kids’ gloves and it has been like this after Manipur went up in flames on May 3, 2023. That the Kangpokpi outrage had the full backing of well armed Kuki militants is now well known, but one wonders why nothing has been said about the participation of Kuki armed groups in the march that targeted Meitei settlements at Torbung and Chura-chandpur in 2023? The conspiracy behind this silence would not have missed the eyes and ears of the Imphal based media houses and it is in taking cognizance of this fact that the Imphal based media houses were dubbed Meitei press in the early days of the conflict. One wonders what the same persons who parachuted into Imphal during the early days of the violence would have to say this time around. Or is it going to be a case of the Meitei armed groups opening fire at Kangpokpi that prompted the attack on the police station ? Ludicrous this poser may sound like, but this has been raised against the backdrop of the fact that already a well known newspaper has gone ahead and reported that Kuki bunkers were first fired on by Meitei armed persons at the Uyokching area on December 24 and it is this which triggered a retaliation, setting off a chain reaction that went on till December 29 ! What Manipur should never forget is that the battle is being fought on different fronts and in as much as village volunteers have taken it upon themselves to proceed to the front, there are others who too have been contributing immensely to blunt the false narratives churned out by some pen pushers across the country.
Delhi continues to handle the Kuki militants and their frontal organisations such as CoTU and the Churachandpur based Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) with kids’ gloves and it has been like this after Manipur went up in flames on May 3, 2023. That the Kangpokpi outrage had the full backing of well armed Kuki militants is now well known, but one wonders why nothing has been said about the participation of Kuki armed groups in the march that targeted Meitei settlements at Torbung and Chura-chandpur in 2023? The conspiracy behind this silence would not have missed the eyes and ears of the Imphal based media houses and it is in taking cognizance of this fact that the Imphal based media houses were dubbed Meitei press in the early days of the conflict. One wonders what the same persons who parachuted into Imphal during the early days of the violence would have to say this time around. Or is it going to be a case of the Meitei armed groups opening fire at Kangpokpi that prompted the attack on the police station ? Ludicrous this poser may sound like, but this has been raised against the backdrop of the fact that already a well known newspaper has gone ahead and reported that Kuki bunkers were first fired on by Meitei armed persons at the Uyokching area on December 24 and it is this which triggered a retaliation, setting off a chain reaction that went on till December 29 ! What Manipur should never forget is that the battle is being fought on different fronts and in as much as village volunteers have taken it upon themselves to proceed to the front, there are others who too have been contributing immensely to blunt the false narratives churned out by some pen pushers across the country.