IMPHAL, March 2: A mass sit-in-protest staged outside the premises of the United Committee Manipur (UCM) in Imphal on Saturday denounced the recent arson of the office by armed miscreants.
The office of the UCM situated in Imphal’s Lamphel was among several offices of the civil society organisations that were torched or vandalised by the armed miscreants on the night of February 23.
Offices that torched or vandalized on the same day included Macha Leima (a women based organisation) along with a school run by the organisation, Manipur Peace and Integrity (MAPI) Council at Wangkhei, Nongpok Leingak Apunba Nupi Lup at Wangkhei Keithel Ashangbi, Coalitions Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA), United People’s Front (UPF) and National Identity Protection Committee (NIPCO).
Related Posts:
The office of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) housed together with the UCM was also reduced to ashes.
Hundreds of members of several civil society organizations including women-based organisations took part in a sit-in-protest staged outside the UCM office under the aegis of the UCM today.
“Book the miscreants and punish them,” one of the placards displayed at the protest site read.
Other placards decrying the burning down of the offices of UCM and other organisations like taking up befitting action against the perpetrators and also decrying inaction on the part of the state government to book the perpetrators were also displayed.
Talking to the reporters at the protest site, UCM president Joychandra Konthoujam compared the historic event of consign to flame the puyas (archaic Manipuri manuscripts in Meitei scripts).
He recalled how the UCM came into existence in 2001 in the wake of the “mass uprising” in June of the same year in protest against the extension of cease fire between NSCN(IM) and the government of India “without territorial limit”.
It is an apex body of various organisations, local clubs and meira paibis (local women bodies) which was established with the sole objective of working unitedly to protect the unity and integrity of Manipur and Manipuri identity, he said.
The motto of the apex body is “Peace, Unity, and Integrity” and has been working for the holistic development of the hill-valley region, he asserted.
While strongly condemning the act of the miscreants, he said that besides valuable documents related with the mass movement for safeguarding the territorial boundary of Manipur collected by the UCM since its very inception, many historical records including treaties and manuscripts and books authored by eminent personalities were reduced to ashes in the arson.
The lost documents, records, manuscripts etc. were also properties, he said while comparing it as burning down of the puyas in the history of Manipur.
The act was meant to erase the history of Manipur, he said, while asking for what fault committed by the UCM, COCOMI and people, the miscreants indulged in such a most heinous crime.
Konthoujam insisted that the perpetrators should clarify the reason behind targeting the UCM office that also housed the COCOMI office in the public domain while denouncing the silence maintained by the perpetrators if they belonged to a particular group or organization.
He further asked the reason behind authorities of the government remaining silent without initiating any action to nab the perpetrators even after weeks since the incident occurred. (NNN)
