Over 100 Kuki-Zomi personnel of the Manipur Police’s Manipur Rifles and Indian Reserve Battalion have approached the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) to intervene in a transfer order that posts them in Meitei-dominated areas of the State. The officers said they had availed all institutional mechanisms available to them to ask for a consideration but have not heard back.
Taking the matter forward, the ITLF wrote a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, saying, “It [the transfer order] requires them to travel to Meitei districts and, if they survive the journey, be stationed with mostly Meitei police personnel. In other words, this is a death sentence as the government cannot guarantee their safety.”
However, a source in the Manipur government denied any ill intent behind the transfer order, dated February 14 and signed by the Director-General of Police. “These are personnel who are being promoted and posted wherever the appropriate vacancies were available,” the source said.
Fear of mobs
“The personnel, around 40 or 50, came to the ITLF office two to three days back and requested that we intervene on their behalf and that is why we have written to the Home Minister regarding this,” said ITLF spokesperson Ginza Vualzong.
One of the officers who is being transferred from his current posting in Churachandpur to Jiribam, a Meitei-dominated district, told The Hindu, “Our family members have written to our Commanding Officers and we have also put in applications for special consideration given the situation. But we do not know if the CO has received these. We felt going to ITLF was our only option”
