Apex militant body in Manipur gives I-Day boycott call

Amid the ethnic violence in Manipur, an apex body of seven militant outfits in Manipur on Saturday gave a call to boycott Independence Day programmes, besides calling for a 17-hour general shutdown on August 15.

In a statement, CorCom, an apex body of banned outlawed groups, said that the political status of Manipur declined abruptly with the "Indian annexation of Manipur on October 15 1949 by which sovereign Manipur was reduced to just a Chief Commissioner's Province".

“From Part 'C' State in 1950, Manipur was crafted into a Union Territory in 1956. Not only did the Indian colonial rule promulgate the notorious AFSPA, and several other draconian laws in the whole of Manipur, it continued to play a divisive policy among the several ethnic groups intermittently, which has now resulted into wanton ethnic clashes.”

The statement said that the illegal Manipur Merger Agreement, 1949 wiped out the sovereign history of Manipur that led to the "imposition of August 15 celebration among the ethnic groups of Manipur".

"Now, the time has come for all the ethnic groups inhabiting Manipur since time immemorial to stand up as 'Manipur People' to resist this colonial regime and pave the way for the scientific political development of our oppressed people towards exercising their inalienable right to self-determination.

"The present ethnic impasse resulted due to India's use of ‘Hate Game and Hate Crime’ as a part of Proxy War of the counter-insurgency operation. All the struggling and oppressed indigenous people of Manipur should now realise the Indian colonial policy of killing two birds with one stone and the impossibility of the restoration of the lost sovereignty of Manipur within the framework of the colonial Constitution of India under the guise of any peace talk," the statement stated.

The militant outfit under the CorCom included Kangleipak Communist Party, Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Prepak), Prepak-Pro, Revolutionary People’s Front, People’s Liberation Army and United National Liberation Front.