For weeks there have been violences in India’s northern state of Manipur that killed more than a hundred people and displaced around 50 thousand since May 3. At least 4 people were killed in the first week of July.
“Two people died and three were injured in violence that broke out Friday morning at Kangvai near the border between Churachandpur and Bishnupur district,” Churachandpur superintendent of police (SP) Karthik Malladi told Hindustan Times on July 7.
Over the past two months, Manipur’s largely Hindu Meitei community, which constitute a little over half of the state’s population, and the Christian-majority Kuki tribal group, which makes up about 16 percent of the population, have violently attacked each other in an outpouring of recrimination and revenge. Angry mobs and armed vigilantes have burned down homes, churches, and offices.
Manipur has long faced secessionist insurgencies in which both military and state security forces have committed serious human rights abuses. Longstanding ethnic disputes have also erupted into violence. However, instead of adopting measures that would ensure the security of all communities, the Bharatiya Janata Party government of N. Biren Singh in Manipur state has replicated the national party’s politically motivated divisive policies
that promote Hindu majoritarianism.