Imphal, April 4: In a significant development, leading organisations of Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities will hold a tripartite meeting with officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in New Delhi on Saturday, officials and leaders said here on Friday.
Saturday’s meeting will be the first such tripartite meeting after ethnic riots broke out 23 months ago between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities over the tribal status demand of the Meiteis.
Though Manipur government officials confirmed Saturday’s first meeting in the national Capital, they refused to disclose the agenda of the tripartite meet. Leaders of the Kuki and Meitei communities separately said that MHA advisor for the northeast region, A.K. Mishra, invited the leaders of the organisations of both the communities. Mishra last month held separate meetings with various organisations of the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo in Manipur.
Last year also the MHA tried to hold a tripartite meeting with the leaders of the two communities but the tribal organisations (Kuki-Zo) refused to meet the Meitei leaders. Leaders of the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), a conglomerate of 13 organisations of the Kuki-Zo tribal communities in Manipur, held a meeting with senior officials of the MHA in New Delhi on January 17 and discussed their demands and the prevailing situation in the northeastern state.
The four-member delegation of the KZC, led by its Chairman Henlianthang Thanglet, met A.K. Mishra and Joint Director, MHA, Rajesh Kamble. Both the MHA officials and the KZC leaders did not share the details of the discussions with the media.
The KZC and 10 tribal MLAs have been demanding a separate administration equivalent to a Union Territory for the Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas. The Meitei organisations have been demanding steps against militants, the drug menace, infiltrators from Myanmar and introduction of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Over 250 people have been killed and over 1,500 people injured in the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo people since May 3, 2023. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes and villages and are now staying in relief camps in different districts for the past 23 months.
IANS
