IMPHAL, May 18: The Khoibu (UIPO) Tribe Union denied rumors that Khanshim villagers fled their village and are sheltering at Tengnoupal in the aftermath of a rally staged by some hundred people from Kakching led by their MLA, as totally baseless and false, a release clarified.
During the rally led by the local MLA hundreds of people shouted slogans and uprooted the Khangshim Khoibu village signboard unexpectedly, it said.
While it is true that some villagers who were living in temporary house left for their the villages for cultivation, this led to the rumors that the villagers had fled and were seeking shelter in Tengnoupal due to the rally, it said.
The union recalled that a decade ago during the Kuki Naga ethnic clash in Manipur, many Khoibu people were killed, many villages were burnt down and few hundreds of people were displaced for no fault of theirs.
Again, few years ago when some tribes residing in Manipur pursued for tribe recognition as a scheduled tribe, the Khoibu tribe also joined the process only to be attacked by the Marings who opposed the tribe recognition.
This came as a shock as the Khoibu tribe always considered the Marings as their neighbors and looked to them for help only to be attacked and beaten up.
The release said the Union stated that the Khoibu people being a minority and unrecognized tribe have many times been dragged into the political mess during the crisis of bigger communities and have thus become the receiving end of different communal problems.
The Union through the release has requested the government of Manipur, political parties and all concerned communities and organizations not to harass, subjugate and discriminate smaller communities like the Khoibu people and also not to use them as a political tool to satisfy one’s own interests. The tribe believes in peaceful and harmonious co-existence with the principle of unity in diversity.
~ Imphal Free Press
Khoibu union denies villagers fled Khanshim
