How armed aliens and radical militia shattered the peace in Jiribam, Manipur

On June 7, Ngurthansang fled his home in Manipur’s Jiribam district as violence hit an area that had been relatively protected from ethnic clashes in the rest of the state for more than a year.

Together with 80 Hmar families, Ngurthansang moved to Lakhipur in neighboring Assam, across the Jiri River. The 33-year-old, his wife and three children spent four months in a relief camp in Hmarkhawlien, Hmar village in Lakhipur.

In October, as peace slowly returned to Jiribam and the school where his wife worked reopened, the family returned home to Zairawn, a village in Hmar. “Everything was calm, but all the villagers stayed together at night, and a few men from the village were there to guard us,” Ngurthansang said Scroll.

However, on November 7, the village was allegedly attacked by members of the Meitei Arambai Tenggol armed group. Ngurthansang’s wife, a 31-year-old teacher, was tortured, allegedly raped and burned alive.

The raid on Zairawn began a new cycle of violence that ruthlessly targeted women and children.

Four days later, a group of armed men from the Hmar tribe attacked a relief camp in the district and abducted six women and children, including one eight-month-old infant, from the same Meitei family. Their bodies was were recovered from rivers near Jiribam a few days later.

Ten attackers were killed in retaliatory fire when they allegedly attacked a Central Reserve Police station near the Borbekra relief camp.

Security services reported Scroll that the attack on the Meitei settlement was “revenge” for the death of the Hmar woman in Zairawn.

They also described the first attack on the village of Hmar as “unprovoked” and “surprising” – aimed at disrupting the fragile peace that has prevailed over the past few weeks.

“Why did they kill the Hmar woman without any prompting?” said a senior Meitei police official who has been involved in efforts to ease inter-communal hostility. “Because Arambai Tenggol wanted to send a message. To disrupt the peace, they targeted Zairawn.

Arambai Tenggol is a group of Meitei guards whose cadres are alleged carried out brutal attacks on the Kuki-Zo community during the ethnic conflict in the state and is believed to have close links with Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

The long-running conflict in Manipur between the majority Meiteis tribes and the minority Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes has resulted in the death of 255 people and the displacement of 60,000 people.

A gathering of armed people

According to a senior police official, Arambai Tenggol has grown in strength in Jiribam since the violence broke out in June, with many of its cadres coming to the district from the Imphal Valley to defend the Meiteis.

This was informed by an Assam Rifles official posted in Jiribam Scroll that armed aliens from both communities were pouring into the district as reinforcements. “Since the June violence, armed men have been gathering in the Imphal valley and Churachandpur,” the official said.

Of the 10 Hmar men killed in a Nov. 11 raid on a Meitei settlement, none were from Jiribam. Seven men came to the district from Churachandpur and three from Pherzawl, a district adjacent to Jiribam.

Security officials and community leaders pointed to the disturbing militarization of both communities in Jiribam.

A political leader who does not belong to either community said: “The number of young people taking up arms on both sides has increased significantly – mainly due to the influence of outsiders.”

A silence that didn’t last

Jiribam is a small district inhabited by many communities, from Muslim and Hindu Bengalis to Meiteis, Pangals, Kuki-Zomi and Naga tribes.

In May last year, as ethnic clashes spread from Churachandpur to Imphal, a peace committee comprising representatives of various communities, security forces and district authorities refrained from violence for almost 13 months. However, in June killing a Meitei man disturbed the peace, leading to the exodus of both communities.

Despite the setback, the Jiribam Peace Committee persuaded representatives of the Meitei and Hmar communities to return to the negotiating table. They met twice in Cachar and an agreement was signed on August 1 aimed at restoring normalcy and “preventing incidents of arson and shootings.”

“We believed that some Meiteis also wanted peace,” said a Hmar leader who was a member of the peace committee.

A senior Meitei police officer said that the stage has been set for the third round of consultations between Hmars and Meiteis in Guwahati.

However, not everyone wanted an end to the violence. “Meitei is a house divided,” said a senior Meitei police official. “Some wanted to derail the process of gaining political influence. And so the attack on the village of Hmar. It is unfortunate that the Jiribam people were influenced by outside influences.”

This was announced by a Meitei leader who was a member of the peace committee Scroll that after the June violence, several Jiribam residents joined Arambai Temggol “because they serve to protect and defend us.”

This was announced by a central security official Scroll that in recent months “the number of weapons reaching Arambai Tenggol cadres has increased.”

While most of Jiribam appeared peaceful, Kuki-Zos and Meiteis were frequently caught in crossfire in two villages on the outskirts of Jiribam town.

“Help” from the hills

As the violence escalated, reinforcements also began to arrive from the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes – from Churachandpur and Pherzawl.

“Jiribam is our area, but we have fewer resources and people there,” said a Hmar leader from Churachandpur. “So to stop the enemy from invading our areas, armed volunteers from the village must go there.”

The escalating ethnic conflict in Manipur has seen civilians from warring communities take up arms to protect their villages. They are often referred to as “rural volunteers”.

Twenty-two-year-old Lalthanei Hmar was one such armed civilian.

Before Lalthanei Hmar took up arms last year, he worked as a painter for a daily wage in the city of Churachandpur.

Two weeks ago he traveled to Jiribam – a one-day journey requiring two vehicles and a river crossing.

“Our villages in Jiribam have been attacked. Therefore, the volunteer committee selected two-three men from each village and sent them to Jiribam to guard the villages,” said R. Hmar, his cousin residing in Churachandpur.

Lalthanei Hmar was allegedly part of a group of armed men who launched an attack on the Borobekra relief camp on November 11.

Borobekra is a sparsely populated area surrounded by Bengali and Hmar villages. More than a hundred Meiteis, displaced by the June riots, took refuge in a relief camp. Security services reported Scroll that this was an area where the Meitei were “defenseless” and “easy targets”.

To repel the attack, CRPF personnel opened fire on the attackers, who, according to several eyewitnesses, set shops and houses on fire and opened fire on a nearby CRPF post.

Lalthanei Hmar was one of 10 gunmen who died in the shooting.

However, Kuki-Zo-Hmar groups dispute this version and criticize the CRPF for shooting the men. They also alleged that armed Meiteis and perpetrators of violence in Zairawn village were hiding in the camp – a claim denied by the Assam Rifles.

It is a measure of the deep division between ethnic communities that several Hmar residents defended the attackers’ actions – even violence against unarmed civilians – arguing that “the presence of Meiteis poses a threat to Hmar lives.”

“The village volunteers did what they had to do during a civil war or ethnic conflict,” said a Hmar resident Scroll. “So they attacked the remaining Meiteis in that area.”

“The Cycle of Violence and Counter-Violence”

This was reported by security service officers and police officers Scroll that restoring peace to the area is now an almost impossible task.

One reason is that both communities have chosen to arm themselves.

“Every person is either a village volunteer or a member of Arambai Tenngol or UNLF (United Front for National Liberationarmed Meitei separatist group),” a central security official said. “Most of them are armed. Or they are informants.

The official added: “The mindset is limited to the cycle of violence and counter-violence. Young men can’t think any further.”

The political leader, who belongs to neither the Meitei nor Kuki-Zo groups, added: “Young men stopped studying and took up arms in the name of protecting their homeland.”

A senior Meitei police officer pointed out that “prolonged violence” over 18 months was to blame for drawing Jiribam into a spiral of clashes. “If you think things will automatically get better, you are wrong.”

He said he was not optimistic that peace would return. “Jiribam was once a hope, but now it is the epicenter of violence.”

All photos: Rokibuz Zaman.