The convention further appealed to all the indigenous communities, who have been living together since time immemorial, to support “waging a collective war to defeat the enemy,” said COCOMI.
TFM Desk
Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a conglomerate of civil society organisations on Wednesday declared a “national war against the Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists”. This followed a day-long people’s convention held on Wednesday.
The convention’s moderator RK Nimai and coordinator Jeetendra Ningomba in a joint statement said the government of India should be held responsible for the current confrontation between “Chin-Kuki Narco Terrorists and the Meetei community”. Hence, the people’s convention led by COCOMI has declared “Manipuri National War” with the objective of defeating the enemy, said COCOMI.
The convention further appealed to all the indigenous communities, who have been living together since time immemorial, to participate and extend support “in waging a collective war to defeat the enemy,” said COCOMI.
The statement further added that “with the declaration of war, public emergency is now in force. As a result, the people of Manipur should refrain from all kinds of festive celebrations. However, rituals associated with death, religious practices and medical services would be exempted from the purview of this declaration”.
COCOMI also stated that since the time “Narco-Terrorists and external aggressors are uprooted from the soil of Manipur, the people should not give up arms. Now is not the time to recover arms, instead it is the time to deliver arms. The government should hand over arms to the people to save and protect Manipur. For this reason, the people will not accept the call to hand over arms by the authorities”.
“If the government wishes to recover weapons and arms, it should first recover the same used by Kuki terrorists because they are the aggressors,” asserted the declaration. “The people of Manipur, therefore, cannot accede to the government’s call for depositing arms. In addition, we will not allow any military operations in the valley,” the statement said.
The convention also asked the government of Manipur to form a force like “Special Village Defence Force” so that people can defend their villages as well as the state. “The volunteers in Imphal and other districts will be regrouped for deployment in the villages already engaged in resting attack”, said COCOMI. It added that local area clubs and organisations will help coordinate in this effort. “Since the people are in the midst of a war, the markets would remain open so that any essential requirement can be procured without any difficulties”, said COCOMI.
The convention also demanded that the Manipur government must, as per the law, approve all the pending arms licence applications for citizens’ self-defence. COCOMI in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on June 4 had stated that local youth are not willing to surrender arms as attacks by Kuki militants have intensified.