Assam cm places centre’s peace plan before kuki insurgent groups

Assam cm places centre’s peace plan before kuki insurgent groups

Meeting held in Guwahati; plan is to deploy Central forces in zones between Kuki and Meitei settlements; tribal man dies after being hit by bullet, three injured in another clash; two prominent personalities withdraw from peace committee.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday met Kuki militant groups offering them a peace plan on behalf of the Union government.

The armed groups had signed a suspension of operation (SoO) pact with the Centre and the Manipur government in 2008 for a political settlement of their demands for self-governance.

On Monday, a 22-year-old tribal man identified as Muansang was killed after he was hit by a bullet at Loilaphai village on the boundary of Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts in Manipur. “The exact circumstances of the attack are not known. There was no State police or Central police force in the area at the time of the incident. The place is not among the identified vulnerable areas,” Karthik Malladi, Superintendent of Police, Churachandpur, told The Hindu.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) accused Meitei separatist groups for the killing.

In another incident, at least three Meitei villagers were injured in an exchange of fire between two groups on Monday morning in Imphal East.

In his meeting with the groups under SoO in Guwahati, Mr. Sarma is learnt to have conveyed that the Central Armed Police Forces will be deployed in the “buffer zones” or foothills, the areas at the junction of Kuki and Meitei settlements, in two to three days. Most incidents, gunfight and arson have been reported from these zones since the ethnic violence erupted on May 3 that has claimed over 100 lives.

The SoO groups assured Mr. Sarma that the armed village guards deployed at the foothills to defend villages from attack by Meitei groups will be withdrawn as soon as the Central forces are deployed, a SoO member who attended the meeting told The Hindu.

Mr. Sarma, who was sent to Imphal last week by Home Minister Amit Shah to carry forward the peace negotiations, had met Meitei civil society groups where the Centre’s peace plan was discussed.

Committee nominees

Meanwhile, two prominent personalities of theatre and literature — Ratan Thiyam and Makkonmani Mongsaba — who were in the 51-member Peace Committee announced by the Centre, have sent their resignation letters to the Governor, citing work commitments. However, sources close to them told The Hindu that they were not pleased as their names were included in the committee without even informing them.

The influential Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a civil society group in Imphal, also withdrew from the peace committee.