A cross has been installed atop a hill near Manipur’s Moirang town in an act seen as destabilising in the violence-hit state, as the hill has a shrine that the residents of this lakeside town under Bishnupur district, 60 km from the state capital Imphal, consider sacred and ancient.

Moirang’s Meitei community had been going for pilgrimage to Thangjing hill, the home of the deity Ibudhou Thangjing. They believe the Thangjing hill site to be at least 2,000 years old. The tribes call this hill range Thangting, which falls under Churachandpur district. The renaming to Thangting in December 2015 by the then Congress government in the state had led to tension among communities.

Undated visuals show a priest leading a group of people carrying the cross to the hilltop, where after installing it they were seen praying. Some men armed with assault rifles are also seen guarding the priest. The armed men are suspected to be insurgents who have signed a tripartite ceasefire with the state government and the Centre, sources said, adding their act violated the ceasefire conditions.

The Kuki-Zo tribes deny the hill is exclusively a sacred site of the Meiteis.

Ginza Vualzong, the spokesperson of the Kuki-Zo group Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), denied encroachment on any sacred site of the Meitei community. “The cross is a symbol of Christianity and can be seen in all the houses of a Christian. Erecting a cross at Thangjing hill is also a form of showing our faith and religion. This should not be taken as something done against any other religion,” Mr Vualzong told NDTV today.

“Thangjing is a Christian place and to put up a cross is just a show of faith. Had the cross been erected in a Meitei area, then we may not have the right to put up the cross,” he added.

The cross was installed on January 25, sources said, despite a Supreme Court order on December 16, 2023 that the Manipur government should ensure all religious buildings including churches and temples are protected. The Supreme Court order came in response to vandalism of 386 religious structures – mostly churches and some temples – following the outbreak of ethnic clashes between the hill-majority Kuki-Zo tribes and the valley-majority Meiteis.

This Thangjing hill range lies between Moirang town and Churachandpur district, 40 km apart. Churachandpur and nearby areas are where ethnic violence began on May 3, 2023. The people in Moirang – home to the northeast’s largest freshwater lake Loktak – consider the deity Ibudhou Thangjing the area’s guardian.

In October 2023, photos taken with powerful zoom lenses and drone footage had confirmed the installation of another cross on the hill. Moirang MLA Thongam Shanti had told NDTV the cross came up on the same spot where the shrine of Ibudhou Thangjing stood.

Then too, the ITLF had refuted allegations of desecration of any sacred site of the Meiteis. “The cross is a sign of Christianity; it is seen in many parts of our land, be it in churches or homes. As it is a symbol of our religion, to erect a cross at the Thangting range is normal and an expression of our faith. Since it does not encroach on anyone’s land, I do not see an issue here,” Mr Vualong had told NDTV.

After the Supreme Court order in December, the Manipur government was expected to come up with a proposal to protect places of worship and properties of internally displaced people.

The alleged desecration of the sacred site on Thangjing hill at a time when tensions are still high and people are dying in gunfights – nine months since violence began – points at challenges in enforcing measures to protect religious sites in a state sharply divided on ethnic as well as religious lines.

The Manipur cabinet in October 2022 took a decision to include four hectares of Ibudhou Thangjing, two hectares of Koubru Laipham, and four hectares of Lai Pukhri under Section 4 of the Manipur Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1976, which protects these places from encroachments.

A Moirang committee on protecting the Koubru and Thangjing ranges had filed a first information report (FIR) over the alleged encroachment in October 2023. The committee alleged the Kuki Students’ Organisation in May 2022 told Moirang residents to take their permission if they wanted to offer prayers at the hilltop shrine. This had also added to tension between the two communities, long before the May 2023 violence broke out.

Ibudhou Thangjing’s shrine on the hill was not visible from Moirang valley in the past, but is visible now with binoculars since a large part of the hillside has been deforested, a Moirang resident who grew up in the lakeside town and who has done studies on deforestation told NDTV in October 2023, requesting anonymity.

People have to cross a few initial lower-height ranges, then a middle spot before finally reaching the hilltop shrine. After the government built a road from Kwakta side to the hilltop, insurgents began misusing the road to travel up and down fast, the Moirang resident alleged. Earlier, only a dirt path existed till the hilltop. Kwakta saw major ethnic clashes in the past months; it lies between Moirang and Thangjing hill.

“Thangjing hill is believed to be the abode of the Ibudhou Thangjing, one of the most revered deities of the Meiteis and Moirang clan in particular for over 2,000 years. The legend of Khamba and Thoibi and the ancient Moirang principality are inseparably linked to this ancient site,” Lieutenant General Konsam Himalay Singh (retired) – the first officer from the northeast to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army – had told NDTV.

For now, the Centre has enforced some semblance of a “buffer” zone between the hill areas where the Kuki-Zo tribes live, and Imphal valley.

The Kuki-Zo tribes say their “village defence volunteers” have been repelling attacks by armed groups from the valley, who come to the hills across the “buffer zone” with obvious intentions.

The Meiteis, however, maintain all fertile agricultural lands in the foothills are under the range of the “so-called Kuki-Zo volunteers”, who allegedly have been shooting at farmers to prevent them from harvesting. Four civilians – including a father and a son – from the valley who had gone to collect firewood on a hill near Bishnupur district were allegedly tortured and killed by suspected insurgents on January 11.

The Kuki-Zo tribes, who have 10 MLAs in the 60-member Manipur assembly, have been demanding a separate administration carved out of Manipur since May 2023. They have cited complete breakdown of trust between them and the Meiteis as one of the key reasons behind their push for a separate administration. Over 180 have died in the violence, and thousands have been internally displaced.

For a long time, however, Kuki insurgent groups have been working for separation from Manipur. At least 25 Kuki insurgent groups have signed the tripartite suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the state. Under the SoO agreement, the insurgents are housed in designated camps. There have been allegations that full attendance at many of the SoO camps has not been observed.

With inputs from Sunzu Bachaspatimayum

A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the fifth summons in the alleged liquor policy scam, the Enforcement Directorate has approached a court and filed a complaint stating that he has not appeared for questioning. The Rouse Avenue court in New Delhi will hear the case on Wednesday. 

Mr Kejriwal had refused to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Friday and has repeatedly claimed that the summonses issued were illegal and the agency’s only aim is to arrest him. Speculation about the AAP chief’s arrest has been rife ever since the first summons was issued by the agency on November 2.

Two other AAP leaders – former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh – were taken into custody in connection with the case last year. 

The Enforcement Directorate’s complaint before the Rouse Avenue court on Saturday has been filed under Section 63 (4) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which deals with a person intentionally disobeying any direction issued under Section 50 – the clause that gives the agency the power to summon a person. 

Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to non-attendance in obedience to an order from a public servant, also finds mention in the complaint. 

Reacting to Friday’s summons, the AAP had termed the agency’s actions “politically motivated” and “unlawful”.

“PM Narendra Modi’s aim is to arrest Arvind Kejriwal and topple the Delhi government. We will not allow this to happen,” the party had said in a statement.

The Delhi chief minister has skipped five summons by the ED – on November 2, December 21, January 3, January 19 and February 2 – and had been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the case in April last year, but was not made an accused by the agency. The ED is investigating the money-laundering angle in the case. 

The Case 

Under the liquor policy, introduced in November 2021, the government withdrew from retail sale of liquor and allowed private licensees to run stores. In July 2022, Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar flagged gross violations in the policy and alleged “undue benefits” to liquor licensees. The policy was scrapped in September that year.

The CBI has alleged that liquor companies were involved in framing the excise policy, which would have brought them a 12% profit. It said a liquor lobby dubbed the “South Group” had paid kickbacks, part of which were routed to public servants. The Enforcement Directorate has alleged laundering of the kickbacks.

The BJP has claimed that the proceeds of the alleged scam were used by the AAP to fund its campaign for the Gujarat Assembly polls in 2022, in which it got 12.91% of the votes and established itself as a national party
 

The United States and Britain struck dozens of targets in Yemen on Saturday in response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Huthi rebels that have disrupted global trade and put lives at risk.

The joint air raids in Yemen come a day after a wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan on January 28.

The strikes hit “36 Huthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Huthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.

“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Huthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners,” the statement said.

The assault “targeted sites associated with the Huthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars.”

US forces earlier Saturday separately carried out strikes against six Huthi anti-ship missiles that were “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” the Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The military command also said Saturday that US forces shot down eight drones near Yemen the day before and destroyed four more before they could be launched.

CENTCOM said the four drones hit on the ground belonged to the Huthis, but did not identify a country or group linked to those that were shot out of the air.

The Huthis began targeting Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.

US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Huthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

In addition to strikes against the Huthis, the United States set up a multinational naval task force aimed at protecting shipping on the transit route, which carries up to 12 percent of global trade.

Anger over Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza — which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 — has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Last weekend, a drone slammed into a base in Jordan, killing three US soldiers and wounding more than 40 — an attack Washington blamed on Iran-backed forces.

The United States responded Friday with strikes against dozens of targets at seven Tehran-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, but did not hit Iranian territory.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)