Mayhem in Manipur University

The violence that has taken place in Manipur since May 3 has uprooted many lives. One of the worst affected groups in the ongoing conflict is the students belonging to the Kuki-Zo community at Manipur University. Many of them were on the verge of completing their post-graduate courses and the final submission of their PhD thesis. Their academic career has been abruptly cut short by the ethnic violence. On the evening of May 3, as the violence spread in different parts of the state, the University became one of the sites of the tragic violence. Mobs gathered outside the University gate and started shouting slogans of hate and racism. They breached the University gate and charged towards the hostels within no time. All hell was about to break loose.

The marauding mobs penetrated the gates (the main gate and another one located in the south) at around 7:30 p.m. They overpowered the security personnel and forced their way to the men’s hostels. One of the insidious tricks they used was to coerce the students to show their identity cards (IDs) to ascertain their ethnicity. Five students were shoved and kept inside a room with their hands tied in one hostel. Others had to run helter-skelter inside the campus to escape the blood-baying mobs. They hid behind bushes and in ditches inside campus for cover. The prompt and swift response from the Assam Rifles stationed inside the campus saved the students from the clutches of the violent mobs. The students’ fate would have differed dramatically without the Assam Rifles’ timely intervention. It is also essential to note that the campaign for removing the Assam Rifles inside the campus has been a consistent theme during MUSU (Manipur University Students Union) elections for decades in the University. With this new development, the voices for the removal will get louder. The nightmare didn’t stop there. It continued unabated the whole night.

The miscreants, allegedly accompanied by some hostellers, proceeded towards their next target. This time, it was the women’s hostels. It is hard to understand why this marauding mob was allowed to get inside women’s hostels at a Central University without any resistance. Unfortunately, a campus meant to be a safe space for students became the theatre of violence. It seemed like they were given a free hand to wreak violence without any hindrance. They broke into their rooms and started systemically hunting for them one room after another. Video clips show how the ruthless rogues intimidated those inculpable girls inside the hostels. There were also attempts to hurt them physically. As many frightened girls hid under their beds and toilets, the miscreants broke their windowpanes and doors. In some heart-warming instances, they were sheltered and hidden by their good Samaritan friends belonging to different communities.

Such stories are few and far between, but they give humanity hope in such a dark time. They hid themselves and huddled together in some safe spaces they could find until they were evacuated from their respective places by the Assam Rifles. The evacuation process from the hostels to the AR camp was not a smooth rescue mission. The miscreants attempted to stop vehicles and asked the girls to be handed to them. Thankfully, the Assam Rifles put up a stiff resistance and successfully repelled them. The visceral hatred they experienced will leave a deep scar in their memory for a long time to come.

By dawn, the Assam Rifles had finally completed the evacuation process. More than one hundred forty people were evacuated and given shelter in the camp, including students, staff members, and their families. The Assam Rifles provided them with food and other basic needs. All the evacuees were discreetly transported to the 1st MR camp in Imphal, escorted by the Assam Rifles after some time.

The destruction of properties that belonged to the Kuki-Zo community students and staff members went unabated for the next two days, i.e., the 5th and 6th of May. The mob vigilantes were allowed to roam freely inside the campus as they went berserk in destroying hostel rooms and staff quarters. Properties, including laptops, clothes and others, were looted. Books, documents, thesis and study materials were burnt to ashes inside the very campus, which should have valued these items as sacrosanct. It is hard to understand why these vigilante mobs were allowed to go on a rampage spree for two more days. Will the University authority not be held accountable for allowing such mayhem to continue? Does it not constitute a gross mishandling of the situation, thereby suggesting incompetence or complicity on the part of the authority? Where does the buck stops? A few days after the violence on the campus, it was shocking to find that the Dean of Students Welfare (DSW) was utterly dismissive of the incident on a news channel. It is sad to note that such an irresponsible statement was made by a person whose job was to ensure the welfare of the students in the University and which he thoroughly failed.

Nearly five months after these incidents, some misguided students instigated by miscreants again vandalized women’s hostels recently. Their properties were damaged, looted and destroyed similarly. The immediate trigger was the surfacing of the viral photos of the two teenagers. This fresh episode of hate marks the complete ouster of the Kuki-Zo students from their hostels and the University. With many of them displaced in relief camps, unable to return to their homes and villages, the sudden disruption of their education at the University is the last straw that has shattered their hopes.