Coordinating Body Imphal and Joint Action Coordinating Committee, Khurai on Friday stated that the body had been carrying out drives to rejuvenate reserve forest areas in Manipur since 2001 and up till date majority of the objection against the rejuvenation drives only came from the Kuki community.
“We conducted such drives in Khamenlok, Nongmaijing Ching and other reserve forest areas which are in close proximity to the valley, but most of the time the Kukis who settle near these places objected to it,” the body stated.
Speaking to the media at the body’s office in Imphal, spokesperson of Coordinating Body Imphal Thoidingjam Bon stated that the Kukis had even attempted to assimilate some of the valley areas into hill districts by occupying and renaming the places.
“Hangoipat in Imphal East district is one such area which they’ve recently renamed as H Twinomjang Village and further tried to assimilate the area into one of the hill districts,” he said.
He alleged that these were attempts to squeeze out the indigenous populace from the areas in order to dominate and claim the areas as their own.
On the other hand, Bon expressed disappointment over the repeated cases of physical assault by central paramilitary forces on women and protestors in the state.
“The Centre has announced that the hands of narco-terrorists are involved in the conflict but every time an incident occurs the central forces only carry out targeted attacks on the Meiteis, why,” he asked.
We are extremely shocked by their hypocritical security tactics, he added.
As such, he appealed to authorities concerned to mete out appropriate measures as per their announcements.
