N-E peace at stake as Meiteis flee Mizoram

NT Correspondent

Guwahati/ Kolkata: Even as conflictridden Manipur remained on the edge amid reports of fresh violence, forty-one Meitei people (of the majority tribal community) 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.

With this, signs are emerging that the unrest may not remain confined to Manipur and could spread to other North-Eastern states if corrective measures are not taken urgently.

Cachar's Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta said these people reached Silchar in Assam from neighbouring Mizoram on Saturday night and have been kept at 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.

Thousands of people from Meitei, Kuki and Hmar communities have already 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.

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 alleged an 18-year-old girl was assaulted and gang-raped in Imphal East district of Manipur on May 15, days after two women were stripped and paraded naked. Quoting a report appearing in a section of the press, the TMC 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 assaulted and gangraped in Imphal East in Manipur on May 15," it tweeted.

No peace in Manipur till Biren Singh remains CM: Cong

The Congress claimed on Sunday that there would be no movement towards peace in Manipur as long as N Biren Singh remains the chief minister as it urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act now and not "deflect, distort and defame to cover up" the "collapse of the so-called double engine governance" in the northeastern state.

The opposition party's attack came over a media report that claimed that an 18-year-old woman was abducted, assaulted and gang-raped in Manipur's Imphal East district on May 15.