A spate of “terrorist” attacks resulted in the burning down of homes, including the home of a local community leader, and at least nine deaths on Wednesday in Manipur, northern India, where the majority Hindu Meitei tribe has engaged in a campaign to eradicate the smaller, mostly Christian tribes of the region since early May.
Manipur, on the border with Myanmar, has experienced nearly two months of deadly violence between the Meitei tribe and other tribal residents, most prominently the majority-Christian Kuki tribe. Tensions have existed in the region for years, but the latest wave of conflict erupted after the Meitei community, already politically dominant in the region, requested that the federal government designate it a “Scheduled Tribe,” a label that would expand its government privileges. In response, 50,000 people of other tribal communities in Manipur staged a peaceful protest against the designation in May, prompting Meitei militants to attack civilian communities and displace tens of thousands of people.
The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has largely ignored the violence, with the exception of sending Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the region last month to speak to community leaders. The Modi government also dispatched security forces from Assam to Manipur, a territory also in northern India but little in common culturally with Manipur.
Kuki leaders have accused the Modi government of enabling Meitei Hindu violence against Christian communities through a lack of action and, on occasion, support for their attacks. Christian aid organizations have documented Meitei mob violence against Christians as going largely unpunished, even when mob attackers record their crimes and post them online. In addition to targeting Christian homes, the Hindu mobs have burned down dozens of churches.
Modi is expected to visit Washington next week for a White House state dinner, the highest honor afforded to foreign heads of state by a U.S. president. The administration of President Joe Biden has emphasized the importance of friendly ties to India, particularly in light of India’s growing military and economic conflict with China, but failed to address in-depth the rampant Hindu nationalist violence against Christians and Hindus under the Modi government.
The attacks on Wednesday reportedly began in the early morning hours of the day, according to the Times of India, with a mob assault on a village in the Khamenlok region of Manipur, on the border between the Meitei and Kuki communities. The Deccan Herald identified the village as a Kuki community, a tribe that is majority Christian. The Times of India documented nine deaths and ten injuries “in a gunbattle which ensued between the miscreants who attacked the village and villagers.”
“The terrorists, armed with sophisticated weapons, surrounded villagers of Khamenlok, bordering Imphal East district and Kangpoki district. The attack was launched around 1 am,” the newspaper of record documented, citing police authorities.
The Hindustan Times, another national Indian newspaper, reported on Wednesday that the attack in Khamenlok followed a mob arson attack targeting eight villages in the region, burning them down. The report did not clarify the identity of the attackers. It noted that, in response to the mobs trying to burn down the communities, hundreds of locals blocked the main roads into Khamenlok, suggesting that the victims were Kukis trying to keep Meitei attackers out.
The Hindustan Times account documented about 600 people blocking a main road into Khamenlok and placing a large group of elderly women in front of the crowd daring the assailants, and Indian security forces, to attack them to get through to the village. Indian security forces reported that they failed to reach the village thanks to the crowd.
An unnamed official told the newspaper that eight villages burned down but they had no concrete death or injury numbers.
“While there were no reports of casualties in the arson, security officials said, the number of houses burnt in the villages is more than 100,” the Hindustan Times observed.
On Thursday, the Times of India reported another wave of violence in the capital of Manipur, Imphal, between “miscreants” and the police. A mob also set the home of a local Kuki leader, Manipur Minister Nemcha Kipgen, on fire.
Minister Nemcha Kipgen Official Residence Burn down by Arambai Tenggol & Meitei Leepun in Imphal.@AmitShah @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/WLuTmtEWO0
— KSO PUNE (@KSO_Pune) June 14, 2023
Kuki communities have publicly expressed significant distrust of Indian forces and the Modi Hindu nationalist government.
“We, the peace-loving Kuki Zo tribe were forced to protect our lives when we were attacked by the armed Meitei mob, who were tacitly supported by the state government machinery,” a joint statement by the United People’s Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO) published in late May denounced.
At least three members of India’s anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) were arrested that month for setting a local meat shop on fire.
“Since 2014 when the BJP Party, Prime Minister Modi’s party, took over, there’s been a 300% jump in reported attacks on Christians and Christian churches,” the head of the humanitarian aid group Global Christian Relief, David Curry, told Breitbart News last month, addressing the situation in Manipur. “It’s just been this massive escalation. That’s because he has a nationalistic agenda which is, in very simple terms, suggesting that Christians aren’t real Indians because you have to be Hindu to be a real Indian citizen.”
Curry noted that Hindu attackers were uploading videos of their crimes to social media with impunity, a sign they did not believe police would prosecute them.
“Many of the videos we get are being posted by the rioters themselves,” he explained. “They’re not even afraid to post and call out the attacks on the churches on social media because there are no repercussions.”
Modi is expected in the United States from June 21 to June 24. Asked about concerns of the erosion of democracy under his tenure this month, White House Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby emphasized the Biden administration seeks a “deepening” relationship with New Delhi, a “vibrant democracy.”
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