A tribal forum told the Supreme Court that any delay in sending the army will result in further loss of lives
Smoke billows from a street after a standoff between mob and security forces at Sekhon in Imphal East during ongoing ethnic violence in India's north-eastern Manipur state on June 15. (Photo by AFP)
India’s top court has declined to entertain an urgent hearing on a plea to deploy army personnel to protect tribal Christians in the strife-torn Manipur state where more than a month-long unrest has reportedly claimed 115 lives.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, during the June 20 hearing of the plea filed by the Manipur Tribal Forum argued that even after assurances from the federal and state governments, more than 70 ethnic Kuki tribal people, including Christians, were killed.
Any delay in deploying army personnel would lead to further loss of lives, Gonsalves told the Supreme Court's vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and M. M Sundresh.
The court, however, declined the demand, saying, “This is purely a law and order situation and the court is not required to pass orders for army intervention.”
The bench, however, posted the matter for hearing on July 3 when the Supreme Court resumes its normal functioning after vacation.
The forum told the top court that the assurances from both the federal and state governments “were empty” and alleged that the governments were embarking on a “communal agenda for ethnic cleansing of Kukis,” reported livelaw.in, a leading legal portal.
The Kukis, mostly Christians, are being targeted by the majority Meities, who are mainly Hindus. The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party rules the federal and state governments.
Since May 3, unprecedented violence started in the hilly state, bordering civil war-hit Myanmar, between the ethnic Kuki and Meitei communities over a court proposal to grant special tribal status to Meitei people to get priority in government jobs, education, and other affirmative programs meant for the indigenous people.
The violence has reportedly killed 115 people, hurt more than 300 people, and displaced over 50,000 people.
Violent mobs, according to Church sources, set churches on fire in 200 Kuki villages, and 250 places of worship belonging to the tiny Meitie Christians were ransacked.
More than 2,000 houses have been burnt. The number is expected to climb as there were no reports from the violence-hit villages as most of the Christians have fled for their safety.
“Even after one and a half months, the situation continues to be grim with no sign of peace in the immediate future as distrust between both the communities has escalated,” lamented a Church official, who did not want to be named.
The federal government on June 4 had appointed a three-member commission headed by Justice Ajai Lamba, a retired chief justice of the Guwahati High Court, in the neighboring Assam state to probe the violence.
The federal government had announced Rs 1 billion (US$12.5 million) to provide "relief to the internally displaced people in the state,” but Church leaders said, “nothing much has changed other than relaxing curfew in many places.”
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