In Manipur relief camp that came under attack, a grieving Meitei family wants a passage out
In one of the few remaining Meitei settlements in Jiribam district, displaced residents are demanding that they be moved to a safer place.
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As she had in the fortnight gone by, Y Rani Devi opened her tea shop in a nearby market on November 11.
The 60-year-old Meitei woman, who had run this shop in this remote Meitei settlement in Manipur’s Jiribam for 20 years, had no apparent cause for worry.
The market is about 300 metres from the premises of the Borobekra police station, which also houses a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force. There are five other CRPF posts nearby.
Over a hundred Meitei residents from nearby villages had taken shelter in this compound since June, when Jiribam district had turned into another battleground in the ethnic clashes that broke out in Manipur last year. Y Rani Devi and her family, who had lived in Madhupur village till then, were among those displaced by the violence.
At the end of October, as the situation improved, several Meiteis had been allowed by the security forces to re-open their shops in the Jakuradhor market, as long as they returned to the “relief camp” by sunset.
By 2.30 pm on November 11, however, Borobekra was under attack. A group of armed men from the Hmar tribe had arrived at the market and started setting houses on fire.
The Hmars are part of the larger ethnic group of...
