Case Against ITLF Leader Over Alleged Conspiracy To Start Manipur Violence

A police case has been filed against a key member of a Kuki group that's leading the call for a separate administration carved out of Manipur over allegations that he conspired to start large-scale violence on May 3, 2023.

The first information report filed by a resident in the state capital Imphal against Ginza Vualzong, the spokesperson of the Churachandpur-based Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), alleged Mr Vualzong on April 23, 2023 announced his plan to start a "war against the State".

"... His instigations and provocations have culminated into the large scale violence which immediately erupted on May 3, 2023 by the violent rioters who started burning forest offices/beats since April 28, 2023 and Meitei villages since the early hours on May 3, 2023," the FIR stated.

The FIR stated that before ethnic clashes began in the first week of May 2023, Mr Vualzong on April 23, 2023 in a post on social media and a website about the Kuki tribes announced "it's better to demand a Union Territory or join Mizoram."

"... We must fight the Meitei hegemony once and for all. Since after this issue, another will come up... We will never be happy with the Meiteis. Those who love Meiteis should go to Imphal," Mr Vualzong said in the post, according to the FIR filed under at least 11 sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

"... He is the brain behind the ITLF for anti-national activities. The accused person being the media and publicity secretary of the ITLF has issued many releases and notifications, openly instigating the public especially the Kuki-Zo and village volunteers against the Meiteis, state government and the central government," the FIR stated.

Mr Vualzong was "present at the burning site of the so-called Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate on May 3", an incident which was "taken by the Kukis as the igniting point of the violence," the FIR stated.

NDTV has seen a copy of the FIR. Mr Vualzong has not yet given a statement on the police case.

BJP MLA vs MLA Over Call To Ban ITLF

The FIR comes three days after an MLA of the ruling BJP in Manipur called for banning the ITLF for allegedly taking financial aid to buy lethal drones, bombs and ammunition. "... I seek for the organisation namely ITLF to be declared as a banned organisation," BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh, who is from the valley-dominant Meitei community and son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, had said.

A BJP MLA from the Kuki tribes, Paolienlal Haokip, defending the ITLF as a "respected civil society organisation" had written to Home Minister Amit Shah condemning Imo Singh's statement. Mr Haokip also asked the Union Home Minister to have the purported audio tapes linked to Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh investigated under the Supreme Court's watch. Mr Haokip was among the 10 Kuki MLAs who wrote to the Centre seeking for a separate administration, just days after May 3, 2023.

The Kuki tribes have alleged the purported audio tapes - which the Biren Singh government calls "doctored" - proved the Chief Minister set the Manipur crisis into motion.

The latest FIR against the ITLF member, however, alleged the Manipur violence was planned by Mr Vualzong and groups such as the ITLF.

Kuki civil society organisations, the 10 MLAs, and nearly a dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups that have signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement (a ceasefire of sorts, yet to be renewed) - all of them have been demanding nothing less than a separate administration, bringing them together on a common platform - the Kuki MLAs want what the members of the Kuki armed groups under the SoO agreement want, and their civil society groups also want what the MLAs and the SoO agreement signatories want.

The SoO groups have been in talks for a separate administration - a political settlement - for many years before May 2023, and so the claim by some Kuki leaders that the violence led to their call to break away from Manipur was a lie, since the intention for separation was always there, two leaders in the Manipur government had told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

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