Manipur BJP spokesperson and Thadou tribe chief T Michael Lamjathang Haokip (File)
Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:
Manipur BJP spokesperson and Thadou tribe chief T Michael Lamjathang Haokip has filed a police case after two dozen individuals, a few of them armed, burned a portion of his home and fired pictures within the air in Churachandpur on Sunday evening.
Within the first info report (FIR), Mr Haokip named 15 individuals as “immediately or not directly” answerable for the assault on his property and household. He additionally named two individuals who allegedly requested members of a WhatsApp group to kill him. One of many two promised to present “village land” to anybody who kills the state BJP spokesperson.
“… Suspect the involvement of the pretend Thadou Tribe Council (TTC-GHQ) leaders and operatives, who’ve made violent rhetoric and provocative statements,” Mr Michael mentioned within the FIR.
He hooked up printouts of the WhatsApp group’s screenshots which confirmed the discussions to kill him. The police and the cyber cell will examine the cellphone numbers with their service suppliers, and if wanted will take assist from central anti-terror cybersecurity specialists, Mr Haokip informed NDTV. He declined to present additional particulars.
Within the purported screenshot of the WhatsApp group chat hooked up to the FIR, one of many members had written, “SA (separate administration) is not going to be acceptable with out killing LJT (Lamjathang) first, even when the central authorities is prepared to grant us.” One other member wrote, “I promise to present my village land if anybody kills Lamjathang.”
NDTV has seen a replica of the FIR, which reveals some cellphone numbers within the WhatsApp group.
Mr Haokip mentioned the assaults and threats got here on account of him elevating consciousness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately known as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic pressure in Manipur. He mentioned it was the second time his home in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by those that don’t settle for the Thadou tribe’s distinct identification.
The police case was filed a day after a brand new video threatening to kill the BJP spokesperson and Thadou chief was shared broadly on social media. The video reveals a person in black tactical put on surrounded by three in camouflage battle costume carrying AK collection assault rifles. All of them wore masks.
“Lamjathang, when you communicate in opposition to the neighborhood another time or shame the neighborhood, we’ll kill you whether or not you might be in Guwahati or Delhi… Meiteis did not differentiate between Thadou, Kuki or Zomi,” the person within the center mentioned.
The 4 males can’t be village defence volunteers who normally carry licenced single-barrelled and small-calibre handguns, a retired police officer in Churachandpur mentioned, requesting anonymity.
“They’ll solely be insurgents, and this risk cannot be taken flippantly, as they’re brazenly claiming they will kill a civilian wherever within the nation. This is able to not be the primary time somebody from Manipur is going through a risk to life even whereas residing outdoors the state,” the retired officer mentioned.
NDTV could not independently confirm the video, although some members of the Thadou tribe mentioned the video and the dialect heard in it are real, based mostly on what their very own sources informed them in Churachandpur.
The TTC-GHQ which Mr Haokip alleged is a “pretend” organisation has six advisers, and 10 govt members, in accordance with the final revealed info of the group’s construction. The TTC didn’t take the consent of 4 of them earlier than making them members of the “council”. The 4 have given in writing that they weren’t conscious of their membership of the TTC. They requested anonymity for concern of assaults.
“My father’s consent was not there. Clarification already given,” the son of one of many 4 individuals mentioned.
Calls to the TTC’s publicly accessible numbers went unanswered.
The TTC has been condemning Mr Haokip’s feedback on the Thadou tribe not being a part of Kuki. The TTC has mentioned in a press release that it’s the mainstream Thadou physique and affiliated to the Kuki Inpi Manipur. “… Applicable motion shall be initiated in the event that they continued to misuse Thadou once more in future,” the TTC had mentioned in a press release on July 21.
In its latest assertion on August 20, the TTC criticised a brand new Thadou physique known as Thadou Group Worldwide (TCI) as not real and fashioned by some individuals “to collaborate with Chief Minister N Biren Singh”.
Mr Haokip is without doubt one of the key members of the TCI, a bunch that claims to be a world Thadou tribe platform to look into vital points going through the neighborhood, significantly in Manipur.
Nobody was injured within the assault at Mr Haokip’s home on Sunday evening. 4 households displaced by the violence in Manipur additionally reside in 4 small constructions at his household plot, Mr Haokip had mentioned.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and different leaders had strongly condemned the assault. “…I contemplate this private hurt being placed on considered one of our recognised tribes as a direct problem to the unity and integrity of the state. Assaults on any specific neighborhood of the recognised tribes of Manipur, in addition to the assault on the household of the BJP spokesperson, are condemned within the strongest phrases. We are going to provoke acceptable authorized motion in opposition to the culprits,” Mr Singh had mentioned in a publish on X.
The assault carried out on the members of the family of Micheal Lamjathang a frontrunner of the Thadou neighborhood, one of many oldest among the many ethnic tribes of Manipur, in addition to a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his home was an act of cowardice.
I contemplate this private hurt being placed on…— N. Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) August 27, 2024
The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei neighborhood and the practically two dozen tribes underneath the Kukis nomenclature – a time period given by the British in colonial occasions – who’re dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 individuals and internally displaced practically 50,000.
The overall class Meiteis need to be included underneath the Scheduled Tribes class, whereas the Kukis who share ethnic ties with individuals in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram need a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of assets and energy with the Meiteis.
