Labourers from Jharkhand, most of them Adivasis, who had left their hometowns to work in conflict-ridden Manipur earlier this year for a better life have now started returning en masse after one of them was shot dead, while two were injured by armed miscreants in Imphal last week.
This is the first such attack on non-locals in Manipur reported since the ethnic conflict in the State began. Such targeting of non-locals has been among the reasons cited by the Union government to routinely extend the ban on seven valley-based Meitei extremist groups in the State. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had in 2022 presented data to the Assembly saying 20 non-locals had been killed by militants from 2017 to mid-2022. Another non-local, from Assam, was shot in the leg in Thoubal district on Saturday over allegations of rape against a co-worker with police registering cases for both the alleged rape and the shooting.
Shriram Hansda, 42, was killed in the attack by armed miscreants on May 18. Two other labourers were injured in the attack and taken to a hospital in Imphal. Mr. Hansda, an Adivasi from Godda district’s Bisaha village, is survived by wife and four children.
His nephew, Pradeep Hansda said a water supply company in Imphal had in January this year hired his uncle along with others from Godda district through a contractor for pipe-laying work. “We knew some people who had been working there. They said they were getting threats but also insisted on continuing to work there because the [pay] rates were very high,” Mr. Pradeep Hansda said.
Robin, one of Shriram’s colleagues who worked with him in Imphal and helped bring his body back, said, “Around 15-20 of us had got work there earlier this year. But after this incident, all of them have returned, including me. I am just going to Imphal to see the injured workers,” Mr. Robin said.
According to district officials in Godda, on May 18, some men knocked at the door of the rented house the labourers were living in, saying their car had broken down. So Shriram and two others had gone out to help them and suddenly were faced with bullets being fired at them, those in touch with the family in Godda said.
The Manipur Police said they have arrested 27-year-old Sairom Birjit Singh under UAPA charges for Mr. Hansda’s murder and are conducting further raids. Mr. Singh is a cadre member of the Kangleipak Communist Party, one of the above-mentioned seven valley-based Meitei extremist groups that has been routinely banned by the government
No regular work
Shriram, like most others in Godda, was having trouble finding enough work near home, Pradeep said. “There is not much regular work in the village anyway — maybe 3-4 days a week we can find work and that is not enough at a rate of ₹350 per day. While working in Manipur, Shriram was able to send at least ₹18,000 to ₹19,000 home every month.” Pradeep stressed he too had to often go outside of Jharkhand to States like Tamil Nadu for work that paid enough.
Pradeep said Shriram’s wife Pooja was now staring at an uncertain future. “Neither their children are old enough to work,” Pradeep said. He said the family was building a house for themselves under the State government’s Birsa Awas Yojana. “The house is almost done. But what will the family do now?” Pradeep asked.
Godda District Collector Zeeshan Qamer said the district authorities had taken cognisance of the incident and the officials had already reached out to Shriram’s family to help them with whatever they needed. “Some district officials who visited our home and collected documents like Aadhaar did say that we might get some benefits from the governments. But we don’t know what or when. So far, we have not received anything,” Pradeep told The Hindu.
Godda is among the Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand going to polls in the last phase of the elections on June 1.
Ethnic conflict
The ethnic conflict in Manipur between the majority Meitei community and the Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo community has been going on for more than a year now. Around 225 people have been killed in the conflict so far, which has also left thousands of people injured and tens of thousands of others internally displaced.
With tensions between the two communities still prevailing, sporadic attacks have been taking place near the buffer zones between the hill and valley districts. And with thousands of weapons still missing in the State, a marked increase has been reported in instances of abductions and assaults upon civilians, for which radical outfits like Arambai Tenggol and cadres of valley-based insurgent groups like UNLF have been blamed.
The locals blame the BJP government — both at the Centre and the State — for having allowed the conflict to continue for as long as it did and for the silence of the Prime Minister on the issue.
Amidst this, Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday told a news agency that the Union government had been working to resolve the “trust deficit” between the two communities but that it was taking time because of the election.
Mr. Shah has visited Manipur twice since the conflict broke out on May 3 last year. The first was at the end of May last year and the latest was only in April this year — for a poll campaign meeting to endorse his party’s candidate for the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency.
