New Delhi: The Manipur Police has filed a 'zero' FIR after photographs emerged showing a gate purportedly built by a Kuki armed group referring to a site by a non-official name.

The site is sacred to both Meiteis and Kukis.

During the last one year of ethnic conflict between these two communities of the northeastern state, there have been several instances of claims and counter-claims over names of places between them.

The current matter of dispute that led to the filing of the FIR on May 20 pertains to Thangjing or Thangting. It is located near Moirang, in the state’s Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district. Meiteis who consider it the abode of an ancestral deity call the hill range Thangjing – the name of the deity. Kukis refer to it as Thangting.

On March 4, the Manipur assembly passed the Manipur Names of Places Bill which criminalises any attempt to alter the name of a place without official permission. The bill was passed in the absence of the 10 MLAs from the Kuki community. 

The law was brought in to address the issue of Kukis changing some names officially, including that of the town of Churachandpur, which was named after a Meitei king. Kukis now refer to their community’s biggest town as Lamka, officially. 

Justifying the reason for bringing the bill to the assembly then, chief minister N. Biren Singh had referred to Thangjing Hill too and had said that attempts were being made to replace it with 'Thangting', and even to call it 'Mount Olive'. He claimed it was found that an attempt was made to name the reserved forest of the Thangjing hills ‘Haokip Reserve Forest’. Haokip is a Kuki surname.

“Some groups even produced documents on the ‘Haokip Reserve Forest,’ which was unexpected,” the chief minister had said.

He had also referred to a hacking incident whereby the location of the state’s airport named after Manipur’s king Bir Tikendrajit Singh was changed to Lamka instead of Imphal in some tickets issued to passengers by Air India. Biren had also criticised the Assam Rifles for referring to the Churachandpur district as Lamka district in one of their statements, which it later rectified. 

On May 20, taking to X, the chief minister said a zero FIR has been lodged by the state police in the Henglep police station for incorrectly naming Thangjing in a gate purportedly put up by an armed group of the Kuki community, the Kuki National Front, at the holy site under the new law. 

The FIR also mentions the alleged violation of Manipur Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act, 1976.

The photograph based on which the FIR has been lodged, and shared on X by the chief minister, is part of a video clip circulating in the strife-torn state where some people believed to be from the armed outfit celebrating “the usurpation of the sacred site” and “dancing to what seems like a Kuki song, reported the Imphal Freedom Press.

“The KNF has razed the site to the ground and renamed it into Mt Olive, as per sources,” claimed the Imphal-based newspaper.

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