Manipur: Meitei ST Demand Committee submits affidavit to panel proving ethnic violence

Guwahati: In another significant development, the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) on Friday submitted its affidavit to a panel probing Manipur’s ethnic conflict.

The affidavit was submitted at the Imphal office of the Commission of Inquiry headed by Ajay Lamba, a retired judge who served as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court.

The main office of this panel is in New Delhi.

According to Dhiraj Yumnam, STDCM president, who submitted the affidavit on behalf of the committee,  “The demand for inclusion of the Meitei or Meetei people in the list of Scheduled Tribes of India had no connection with the ethnic violence that erupted in Manipur on May 3.”

The committee has taken the service of Manipur High Court advocate, Ningombam Bupenda Meitei and his legal team to look into the matter.

The demand for ST status by a section of the Meitei group has been at the forefront of the ethnic clashes between the non-tribal Meitei people and the Kuki-Zo tribal group for the last eight months.

Around 200 people are said to have been killed and about 60,000 people displaced in the violence since the clash started on May 3, 2023.