The Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO) has begun a “non-cooperation movement” against the CRPF in Churachandpur district of Manipur over the central force’s “actions” that resulted in the death of 10 “village volunteers” in a gunfight in Jiribam district on Monday.
The KSO had on Wednesday held an emergency meeting of several student bodies under the chairmanship of its president to discuss the next course of action following the killings of the “village volunteers” and finalise the “boycott movement” against the CRPF announced by the leading students’ organisation of Manipur on Tuesday.
The emergency meeting was followed by a “town-wide tour” in Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur alongside media representatives during which the boycott measures were declared and the public informed about the rationale behind the KSO’s “non-violent” non-cooperation which “aims to sever all forms of interaction with the CRPF”. George Tuilor, president of the Hmar Students Association, also participated in the meeting.
Aloudhailer atop an autorickshaw announces the boycott of the CRPF in- Churachandpur district on Thursday. The Telegraph
KSO president Sasang Vaiphei told The Telegraph on Thursday that the “non-cooperation” movement against the central para-military force would start from Churachandpur and expand to other Kuki-Zo areas depending on the CRPF’s response.
“Our non-cooperation movement against the CRPF will be totally peaceful. We carried out a public announcement in Churachandpur town yesterday, urging the public not to maintain any contact with the CRPF and not to provide food and other essentials to them. By next week, if there is no response or apology from the CRPF, we will intensify our non-cooperation by cutting water supply (to CRPF camps) and expanding the movement to other districts.”
Vaiphei said details of the measures had been given in the KSO newsletter released on Wednesday night.
The newsletter said the boycott would remain “purely non-violent” but involve strict prohibitions on any form of contact with CRPF personnel. “Individuals found engaging with the CRPF will face strong action by the student bodies,” the newsletter said.
The meeting also decided to “block the CRPF from carrying out normal activities, including frisking, patrolling and other routine duties, in the region. Steps will also be taken to restrict essential supplies, including water, food and electricity, to CRPF camps and personnel in the area.”
The students will work to “ensure that CRPF units cannot function properly” in Churachandpur district, besides taking steps to “collaborate with other organisations, local stakeholders and community leaders to amplify the effectiveness of the non-cooperation movement and to ensure widespread support”.
The CRPF was deployed in Manipur to contain the ethnic conflict between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zos which erupted on May 3, 2023, and has claimed at least 252 lives and displaced over 60,000.
Wednesday’s meeting also decided on the “immediate registration of an FIR in connection with the deaths of the 10 volunteers, pushing for a formal investigation into the incident”.
The students, the newsletter said, “would not rest until the CRPF officers responsible for the killings are held accountable”.
Efforts to get a response from the CRPF proved futile.
While Kuki-Zo organisations have been asserting that those who died in Monday’s gunfight were “village volunteers” on duty to protect their ancestral land and people from attacks from Meiteis, the Manipur police have said those killed were “armed militants” who had simultaneously attacked the Borobekra police station, where internally displaced persons had been given shelter, and a CRPF post nearby in Jiribam.
The KSO said the “victims of the Jiribam massacre” would be laid to rest at the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Churachandpur once their bodies arrive from the Silchar Medical College in Assam after the post-mortem.
