41 people of Meitei community reach Assam from Mizoram after threat over Manipur video

PTI, Jul 23, 2023, 8:31 PM IST

Representative Image (source: NDTV)

Guwahati: Forty-one Meitei people have reached Assam from Mizoram after an ex-militants’ group asked the community to leave the state following the viral video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur, officials said on Sunday.

Cachar’s Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta said these people reached Silchar from neighbouring Mizoram on Saturday night and they have been kept at the building of the Lakhipur Development Block in Binnakandi area.

”These are all well-to-do families and they came in their own vehicles. Some are college professors, while some work as senior government officials. They said that there have been no attacks in Mizoram as of now,” he told PTI.

They said that the Mizoram government was providing all security to them, but they themselves did not want to take any risk and came to Assam for their own safety, he added.

”They are saying that they will stay here till the situation normalises,” the SP said, adding that Assam Police is providing security to them.

Thousands of people from Meitei, Kuki and Hmar communities fled Manipur, and have been living in Assam since ethnic violence erupted in that state on May 3.

The Mizoram government on Saturday reassured the Meitei community living in the state of safety and told them not to pay heed to rumours.

The government’s assurance came amid reports of some Meiteis fleeing the state following an ‘advisory’ by an ex-militants’ association of Mizoram asking them to leave due to tension triggered by the viral video of two women being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur.

Mizoram Police said several Meitei people left for their home states on Saturday amid mounting tension.

A few thousand Meiteis, mostly from Manipur and south Assam, live in Mizoram.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Sunday alleged that an 18-year-old girl was assaulted and gang-raped in Imphal East district of Manipur on May 15, days after the two women were stripped and paraded naked.

Quoting a report appearing in a section of the press, the ruling party of West Bengal claimed on Twitter, ”The tragedy doesn’t end for Manipur!” ”An 18-year-old girl was handed over to four armed men by women vigilantes. She was later assaulted and gang-raped in Imphal East in Manipur on May 15. If such brutal cases are coming in the public eye after more than a month, what’s still hidden must be truly gruesome,” it tweeted.

The TMC, a delegation of which visited the northeastern state recently, wondered when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh ”take accountability for the complete law and order failure”.