The Reporters’ Collective

Under the BJP, Manipur has entered the 4th year of conflict. This time, the Kuki-Zo people have been pitted against the Naga people. People have been kidnapped, killed, bodies mutilated and villages burnt. Each day, the violence, the fear and the anger escalate. 

Over the course of a month, my colleagues Angana Chakrabarti and Robinson Wahengbam investigated the reasons behind the rise of the second round of conflict. They reported from Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Delhi to understand what is driving the people in the hills to the edge. 

They found that the Union government and the BJP’s response to the new crisis is: silence in public, militarisation of Manipur on the ground and a grab for power in the state. 

The Naga leaders have by now publicly accused the Narendra Modi government’s security forces of working with the Kuki-Zo armed groups to cause violence against their people. These are the same leaders that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once praised for their wisdom while signing the framework peace accord with them in 2015. 

At the heart of the new conflict are the differences over territorial claims and control over trade routes.

My colleagues detail the proposal that the Kuki-Zo armed groups have presented to the Union government — one that asks for a Puducherry-style Union Territory carved out of Manipur. They demand that all areas inhabited by theKuki-Zo people across Manipur, even if these are small and disconnected pockets, be carved out under the new Union Territory. 

The fires in Manipur are being lit again. It is easy to blame the people. The investigation reveals how the people of Manipur have been left with no option but to fend for themselves. Yet again. 

It is a long read. I request you to give it your time, heart and mind. 

Peace, At Gunpoint

Nitin Sethi
Editor
The Reporters’ Collective

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Will half-truths in the Parliament bring peace to Manipur?

India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)

How Manipur Is Forced to Parade Their Losses To An Ignorant India

Slavoj Žizek: Manipur is not only in India

Justice not about money… punish officers responsible: father of killed Naga miner / Meghalaya to urge Centre to repeal AFSPA / Nagaland killings: Direct marise…they shot right at us, no signal to stop, we did not flee, says ambush survivor