Saikul protestors say we are like ‘dumped children’, urges PM to act

Manipur: Thousands of people, including villagers from Khamenlok area in Saikol sub-division, staged a massive sit-in at the Saikol sub-divisional headquarters in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on June 20.
From June 12 to 14, a sit-in protest was held under the auspices of Kuki Women’s Union, Saikol Block, against the attack and burning of ten villages in Khamenlok area.
The protesters carried placards and tricolor from 12 noon till late afternoon at the Saikol playground of the Sub-Divisional Headquarters.
Various leading Kuki leaders and the Kuki women’s union Saikol Blocks on this occasion strongly condemned the Khamenelok attack and the burning of ten villages in the area, calling the incident a “state-led act” to destroy all Kuki residents and villages. Planning”. Khamenlok area.
The Saikul protest also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prolonged silence and requested his immediate intervention to solve the cookie problems.

The protesters also expressed their pain to the Prime Minister for his silence, which made them feel like an “abandoned” child.
An internally displaced woman from the Khamenlok area, who participated in the sit-in, said she had come here to join the protest because she was one of many people from the Khamenlok area. There is one whose houses and villages have been mercilessly burnt to ashes by the usurpers. Community with the support of state forces.
“On June 14, when Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Leisemba Sanajaoba came to Khamenlok area, we were expecting many positive things from their presence but unfortunately, like all other villages, our expectations were not met. On the contrary, everything happened. The fire was set when they left the area,” she added.
She added that the Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP came with heavy security and weapons which were later used to attack us and state forces helped our attackers in burning our villages.
“This is totally against the ethics and principles of any legitimate government, which should act impartially and treat every citizen equally,” she said.
“Discrimination against the Kuki people in Manipur is rampant under the leadership of Chief Minister N Baran Singh”, she added before saying that our demand for a separate administration is justified.

Calling for timely intervention of the central government, he said it would help restore normalcy and restore peace in the state.
Another young woman from Khamenlok area who also participated in the protest said that life is very important, so when we are attacked we need to defend ourselves, she added. Even after a month and a half of violence, we have never been attacked or assaulted. Created violence against the dominant community who attacked continuously, and burnt our village.
She also said that there is a state government and a chief minister but we no longer have a government that we can expect to solve our problems and issues because the state government and the chief minister would have chosen to stay for a particular community.
“We can no longer expect the state government because it chooses to stay for a particular community”, she said.
She also said that we are like an “abandoned child” even as the central government, especially the prime minister, chose to remain silent after many of us were killed and many of our villages were burnt.
She further said that when Union Home Minister Amit Shah met us and asked for fifteen days to solve our problems, we had a glimmer of hope, but even after fifteen days nothing happened, instead he took another five. Ask for the day.
She then urged the central government to do something for the thousands of internally displaced persons, whose villages and homes were burnt to ashes, and to find a solution to the problems of the Kukis.
The protestors also chanted, “Stop state-sponsored attack on Kukis”, “Permanent solution will only bring peace to Manipur”, “Zero trust in N Biren Singh”, “Implement AFSPA in Manipur Valley, PR”. demand”. State” etc.
Another woman said, “I never thought that a day would come, even if I were a woman, that I would be forced to carry my licensed gun for self-defense, but, now we are in such a situation.

“I can easily be killed not because of anything else but just because I belong to the Kuki community if I visit Imphal, which is the situation in Manipur now.”
She also said that N. Biren Singh is not the Chief Minister of Manipur, but only the Chief Minister of the dominant Meitei community.
She said that Singh could have easily controlled the violence when it first erupted in a more acceptable way, but he chose to remain silent, even though he had all the options at his disposal and everything available to him.
“N Biren Singh is not the Chief Minister, he is a dictator, the worst dictator of our generation”, he asserted.

The woman then said that the Kuki people have something we call “ethics in war” that we never touch women, children and the elderly, but the dominant community took a 7-year-old injured minor along with his mother to an ambulance. Burned alive inside. and another woman who was with him for treatment at the hospital.
“I cannot go back to the valley, and that is why we are demanding a separate administration, this is not what we wanted, but the need of the hour”.

He said that the central government must respond to our demand but we are surprised why the Prime Minister of India is so silent till now.
“We are Indians, and we will die as proud Indians. The Prime Minister should break his silence and fulfill our need of the hour, namely a separate administration.”

The sit-in protest ended with a prayer by the KWU Saikul block leader.