Ethnic strife frustrates peace efforts in India's Manipur

Gunmen seized six hostages this month while exchanging fire with troops in India's northeastern state of Manipur after a rocket-propelled grenade reduced vehicles and homes to charred hulks in the hilly district of Jiribam.

Ethnic clashes over land and quotas in education and government jobs have killed at least 258 people and displaced more than 60,000 since last year in the biggest law-and-order failure for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, which rules the state.

Retaliatory fire by troops killed at least 10 gunmen in the Nov. 11 attack, which authorities blamed on the Hmar group among the ethnic Kuki minority, as a response to the prior burning of their village and the killing of one of their number.

"We want peace, but if they attack us, we have to defend ourselves," said Khuma Hmar, 55, an elder in the village of Zairawn, as he examined ash, burnt toys and bullet holes in the home of a 31-year-old Hmar woman who, authorities said, was shot, raped and set ablaze on Nov. 7.

Officials attributed the arson and killing to members of the state's majority Meitei ethnic group.

India's home ministry, which sent more troops to Manipur after the violence, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kukis and Meiteis have battled in Manipur's foothills since May 2023 over the prospect of welfare benefits for the mainly Christian Kukis, whom India categorises as disadvantaged, being extended to the mostly Hindu Meiteis.

But multi-ethnic Jiribam had been largely free of violence until November's attacks, when peace seemed fleetingly within reach, but now the flare-ups are worrying authorities.

"We had decided that we would not let the divisions between our communities reach here," said Khuma Hmar.

After a peace pact signed by the Kuki-Hmar and Meitei groups following two rounds of formal talks, communities in the area had socialised, he added.

"The Meiteis tore it all apart," Khuma Hmar said, pointing to the Meitei village of Mongbung, barely 50 m (160 ft) from Zairawn on a narrow road winding past rubber and bamboo plantations.

Members of the Meitei community denied the accusations.

A security officer said about 18 houses had been burned in Zairawn, and in retaliation, nearly 70 homemade projectile bombs were thrown at Mongbung, replicating a pattern of revenge elsewhere in the state.

Troops nearby who heard gunfire and explosions readied to go into Zairawn, but were blocked by a crowd of Meitei women demanding protection, said another paramilitary officer who sought anonymity, as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

"Our all-men units cannot forcefully remove women if they block our way," he said. "We could go in only after the destruction."

Prosenjit Singh, a Meitei from Mongbung, said no villagers had been involved in the Zairawn violence, however.

"I have friends in that village, we went to school together, but we stopped talking since violence broke here," the 37-year-old said. "We too want peace, but they should stop attacking us first."

FRAGILE PEACE

Hundreds of families fled Jiribam for relief camps in Manipur and neighbouring Assam state after the June killing of a Meitei man sparked arson and some tit-for-tat killings.

Hostilities eased after peace talks brokered by authorities clinched a pact in August that let some families return home.

But tension flared after another killing in September, and intelligence officials warned that hundreds of people carrying weapons had started flowing into Jiribam from elsewhere in Manipur, two security officers said.

Searches uncovered armed cadres of Meitei and Kuki-Hmar militant groups, even though both had signed pacts with the Indian government to halt operations, the officers added.

One Meitei woman, Sandhya Devi, 33, said life for her family began to return to normal after August.

Her mother opened a small shop in Borobekra, a plains settlement of Meitei villages surrounded by pineapple, rice and rubber farms, located near security outposts.

But on Nov. 11, about 30 armed men stormed in to her shop in a tin-roofed market and opened fire, killing two Meitei and taking six hostages: the mother, Devi's two sisters and their three children.

Days later, the discovery of their bullet-ridden bodies in a nearby river touched off violence as the news spread, killing one Meitei.

"The people who did this to my family should also be killed in the same way," said Devi, now one of nearly 100 Meteis staying in a relief camp.

Community leaders and lawmakers have urged peace and the government has declared Jiribam a "disturbed area", allowing warrantless searches and arrests by troops given powers to shoot to kill.

Still, armed cadres continued to arrive, the two officers said, though violence has subsided as the military pushes the newcomers to leave.

Hundreds attended last week's funerals of the nine Meitei, at which one member of an armed Meitei group quoted its leaders as having sworn, "The fight that started in Manipur will end in Jiribam."