Kuki-Zo Community Members in Hyderabad Mark a Year of Ethnic Violence in Manipur

New Delhi: As the ethnic violence in Manipur completed a year on Friday (May 3), a commemorative event was organised in Hyderabad by the Kuki-Zo community under the leadership of the Hyderabad Unau Tribal Forum (HUTF).

The event was organised to highlight the atrocities faced by the northeastern border state torn by ethnic conflict in the last year. Members prayed for justice and remembered those who have lost their lives.

Members forwarded their demand for prosecution of those responsible for the violence.

"The Forum also calls upon the central government to immediately initiate steps to grant the demand for ‘separate administration’ taking into account the complete demographic and territorial separation between the Meiteis in the valley and the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar in the hills," it said, repeating what has been the demand of the community throughout this conflict.

In the year since ethnic violence first broke out in the north eastern state between the Kuki and Meitei ethnic communities, official records say, 224 people have died while at least 60,000 people have been displaced with many still living in relief camps. Many have also since fled their neighbourhood and escaped to Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya.

The violence is still ongoing and the state is sharply divided between the hills and the valley regions, with Meiteis unable to go to the Kuki-dominated hill areas and the Kukis not being able to go to the Meitei-majority valley.

While prime minister Narendra Modi is yet to visit the state, home minister Amit Shah has visited the state for a few hours last month to campaign for the ongoing elections.

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