Amit Shah on Manipur: 'Centre in talks with local tribes, India-Myanmar pact scrapped to stop infiltration'

As Manipur continues to be on the boil, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday suggested that infiltration from Myanmar was the root cause of the problem and that fencing had started to stop it. Thirty km of the fencing has been completed and the central government has approved a budget to fence the whole 1500-km border, the home minister said.  

"We have successfully deployed CRPF at strategic locations. To stop the infiltration, we have nullified the agreement between India and Myanmar which allowed the movement of the people, and now entry into India is allowed only by visa," he said at a press briefing held to celebrate 100 days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term.

Shah said that except for recent violence that went on for three days, no major incident took place in the last 3 months. "We are hopeful to bring the situation under control. We are in talks with both the local tribes. Because this is racial violence, there cannot be any solution until there is a dialogue between them. We are speaking to the Kuki groups and the Meitei groups. We have created a roadmap to solve the issue."

In May last year, violence erupted in the state during a protest march against the Meitei community's demand for ST status. Clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi groups quickly escalated, leading to widespread violence, including arson, destruction of homes and places of worship, and killings.

The Meitei community (mostly Hindu) constitutes about 53% of the population and predominantly live in the Imphal Valley, while the Kuki-Zomi and Naga tribes (mostly Christian) live predominantly in the surrounding hill districts. 

More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic strife between Meiteis and Kukis since May last year.

Meanwhile, the Manipur government has said that schools and colleges, which were closed due to the law and order situation, will reopen today and normal classes will resume. Schools and colleges were closed on September 7 after rocket attacks killed one person and injured several others.