Pull out Assam Rifles from Manipur, act against Kuki militants, Meitei body urges Centre

Imphal: Meitei community apex body, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) on Friday again urged Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to replace Assam Rifles in Manipur by any other central force and take action against the Kuki militants.

A COCOMI delegation, led by Group Captain B.N. Sharma (retd) met the Defence Minister and told him that Meitei insurgent outfits have been already banned by the Union Home Ministry before 2000, so necessary legal actions have been taken taken against them, but, no actions have been taken against the Kuki militant outfits under the pretext of Suspension of Operations (SoO) and Kuki militants are firing from hills and farmers are being killed.

The COCOMI delegation claimed that the protest of Meiteis were dealt with baton charges, rubber bullets, tear gas, and even live bullets being fired, but, the protest by Kukis were not dealt with similar way leading to a sense of biased treatment and caused anxiety and fear among the Meitei community.

The leaders requested the Defence Minister that the Assam Rifles (AR) and Army should deal with both communities equally since the army comes under the Defence Minister and AR officers are from the army.

It said that embarrassing India, a memorandum was submitted to the United Nations and the Prime Minister of Israel seeking help in the formation of a separate state or separate administration for the tribals in Manipur. The Kuki community somehow raised their issues in the European Union parliament.

"The Kuki community in their memorandum submitted to the Israel Prime Minister leaked sensitive information to foreign nations. They shared the names of Meitei army officers and disclosed information about their location of duties. They also shared the sensitive databases of the Indian government," the COCOMI delegation told the Defence Minister.