CoTU urges Union Home Minister to bring a semblance of justice for men in uniform, AFSPA in Manipur's valley

The Committee on Tribal Unity, or the CoTU, Sadar Hills Kangpokpi District submitted a memorandum to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to rescind the Government of Manipur order about the recent transfer and posting of police personnel on the grounds of impracticality and impossibility and to re-imposed AFSPA in the 19 Police Stations of the valley in Manipur.

The memorandum was submitted to the Union Home Minister through Deputy Commissioner Kangpokpi.

CoTU stated in the memorandum that the recent transfer and posting, attachment or detachment of police officers/personnel on February 14, concerning 108 Kuki-Zo police personnel at this critical juncture with heightened polarization on ethnic lines is devoid of logic and uncalled for.

Several high-ranking Kuki-Zo civil & police officers (IAS/IPS) are unable to perform their duties since the state could not ensure their safety. Therefore, it is highly impractical and unattainable for these 108 Police personnel to travel back to Imphal for duty, it stated.

Drawing the immediate attention of the Union Home Minister to look into the security aspect of the present sectarian conflict which has now entered 10 (ten) months, the Committee started that the misplaced priorities by the current dispensation in the state of Manipur to recover those 5000 numbers of assault rifles and 6 lacs no of ammunitions looted from the state police armouries in the first week of the conflict is more of concern rather than the preconceived notion of foreign involvement.

This indifferent attitude of the concerned authority towards civilians with arms in the open streets has emboldened the armed militias to summon the 37 non-tribals elected representatives from the valley districts including the inner and nominated MPs of the state to succumb their diktats and forced them to take an oath of allegiance to their mandate; which is an overt display to undermine the very foundation of our democratic principle of the country and desecration of the Constitution of India, it stated.

Therefore, imposition of the Arm Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) in all the 19 Police Stations in the valley districts is a prerequisite to recovering those looted arms and thwarting the secessionist Meitei militants from disintegrating the country, it further stated.

CoTU seeks the intervention of the Union Home Minister to bring a semblance of justice for men in uniforms and to prioritize recovering those looted arms from the state police armouries so that the public in the valley be deterred from such attempts and demilitarised them.