Manipur, India in Crisis: Authorities Fail to Act

Impunity of vigilante groups

• Police failing victims of communal violence
• Journalists, activists, influencers silenced through attacks and trumped-up charges
• Relief camps in dire need of support

More than four hundred days since the start of ethnic violence between the dominant Meitei community and the minority Kuki and other tribal hill communities, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Indian government and Manipur state government have utterly failed to end the violence and displacement and protect human rights in the state, said Amnesty International.

Since 3 May 2023, at least 200 people have been killed and more than 60,000 displaced, while homes, business, villages and places of worship have been burnt down, attacked, looted and vandalised. Authorities have continued to crackdown on those who have dared to speak out against this.

The authorities’ 14-month long course of inaction and impunity must end immediately.

Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India

“The state and central governments’ blatant failure to end abuses, protect people and hold suspected perpetrators to account in Manipur have left communities terrified and devastated. The authorities’ 14-month long course of inaction and impunity must end immediately,” said Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India.

Impunity of vigilante groups: “Raped women, burnt down villages, slaughtered people… with no consequences.”

• Vigilante groups such as Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Lippun that support the dominant Meitei community in Manipur have gained notoriety due to the authorities failing to end the violence by the groups and bring those suspected to be involved to justice.
• The groups have recruited thousands of volunteers, who are often armed with military-grade weapons allegedly looted from state police armouries, as in the case of Arambai Tenggol’s.

Since the start of the conflict, Amnesty International found at least 32 reported incidents of members of Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Lippun committing gender-based violence against those belonging to the ethnic tribal communities and at least two incidents of abducting Manipur police personnel.

Greeshma Kuthar, an independent journalist who has been reporting about the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, alleged: “The Arambai Tenggol have led mobs to Kuki-Zo villages that were then burnt down, killed people and slaughtered them. There are FIR’s which name them as the accused in sexual assault of Kuki-Zo women.”