'Separate state': Tribal MLAs from Manipur meet Mizoram CM, Kuki-Zos to hold rallies in 6 states

AIZAWL/IMPHAL — Ten Manipur tribal MLAs, including ministers, who have been demanding "separate administrations" (equivalent to separate state) for tribals in their state, have met Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga in Aizawl and sought his intervention to solve the ethnic crisis in Manipur.

To intensify the "separate administrations" demand for the tribals, the Kuki-Zo tribals, for the first time, would hold rallies in at least five other states besides Manipur on November 29.

Manipur tribals' apex body, Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum;s (ITLF), senior leader Ginza Vualzong on Saturday said that the November 29 mega rally of the Kuki-Zo tribals would be held in Mizoram, Tripura, Delhi, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, besides different districts in Manipur.

Zoramthanga, who is the President of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), said that the tribal MLAs of Manipur including ministers met him in Aizawl on Thursday and requested him to hold talks with the Naga leaders in Manipur and Nagaland regarding the current ethnic turmoil in the neighbouring state.

He said that the Manipur legislators, belonging to Kuki-Zo tribals, wanted to maintain good relationship with the Naga tribal community in this time of ethnic strife in Manipur.

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"I have requested the Manipur tribal MLAs and Ministers to keep a close contact with the Union government and continue to apprise him of what is actually happening in Manipur," he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated that the MNF always stands with the ethnic kindred brothers and sisters in Manipur and other neighbouring states as well as Myanmar, Bangladesh and other countries.

"Mizoram is for all the ethnic Mizos around the globe," he said while addressing the party workers in Aizawl.

Zoramthanga, his Cabinet colleagues and MNF MLAs had participated in the 'Solidarity March', organised by the NGOs Coordination Committee in Mizoram on July 25 to express solidarity for the Kuki-Zo tribals, affected in the violence in Manipur.

Ten Manipur MLAs, including seven belonging to the ruling BJP, since the ethnic riots began in the state have been demanding a ‘separate administrations’ for the tribals in the state. The Central and state governments and BJP leaders, on a number of occasions, rejected the demand and vowed to maintain a united Manipur.