Their houses and properties were burned. They lost everything as their villages in the low-lying areas along the foothills surrounding the Imphal valley, once verdant with lush fields, are now completely burned. Amid the sound of guns and fire, the smell of smoke and burned ashes still hangs heavy in the air. The fateful night of May 3 continues to haunt them.Their villages still face attacks by armed militants. Yet, while some thousands displaced persons fear to return to their abandoned homes and villages, some thousand others displaced villagers long to go back and rebuild their lives in their villages.
Displaced villagers from various violence-hit places in Manipur taking shelter at several relief camps set up across the state say that they do not want to stay in “temporary houses” that the government is planning to construct to shift them out from their present shelters, mostly camped in educational campuses. They desire to return safely to their villages for resettlement.
The displaced villagers seeking to return to their old places include those from some of the worst-affected villages such as Dolaithabi, Ekou, Sadu Yenguman, and Leitanpokpi located along the foothills under Khundrakpam area in Imphal East.
“Temporary houses will not provide us the right to life,” Huirom Ashakumar, Makang Dolaithabi Gram Panchayat Pradhan, said on Monday.
While the displaced at relief camps are being provided daily meals, Ashakumar asked, “How long will the government provide us food? ...we are human beings, we have to survive by our own work.”
Ashakumar hails from Ekou village. He said that they have not seen their village nor anyone been there since they left it following the communal clash that broke out on May 3.
Recalling that fateful day of May 3, Ashakumar said it was around 8 pm when “a large number of people belonging to the Kuki community” stormed their village, Ekou.
All the Meitei people living in Ekou fled from the village and when they reached Leitanpokpi, they could see the flames of fire rising from their houses burned by Kuki miscreants. After that, the next villages from Sadu Yenguman to Leitanpokpi Sadu Lampak were all burned, Ashakumar said.
Stating that the villagers are mostly farmers and daily wage earners and want to live a normal life like before, he asked how long the state government would assist them for their survival.
Expressing their pain and suffering, he urged the Manipur government to provide state forces for their protection so that they could re-enter their villages for resettlement and start working for their sustenance.
Informing that among those houses burned down by Kuki miscreants, 45 houses were constructed under the Prime Minister Awaj Yojana, he urged the state government to reduce their returning loan amount. It may be recalled that unknown miscreants returned and set ablaze already burnt houses at Dolaithabi on May 20.
It may be mentioned that several villagers have expressed concern about continuing agricultural activities that are yet to be conducted amid the unrest. They have demanded the government to ensure security and protection for them to enable them to return to cultivation of fields to prevent famine and starvation in the next year.
Following the continuing violence in the fringe areas of Imphal valley where most of the paddy cultivation take place, the fields now lie abandoned as most of the villages are hit by the violence and the villagers remain displaced. Even after over two months of the violence, villages in low lying areas along the foothills continue to face threat of attacks by armed militants and unknown miscreants. In some villages, village volunteers brave all fears and stand guard over their villages, while some of them have fallen victims to the attacks.
