IDPs from Churachandpur reject PUCL enquiry report as “biased and baseless”

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Churachandpur have strongly rejected the recent independent enquiry report released by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), terming it “totally wrong, one-sided and biased.”
Speaking to media persons at the Manipur Press Club today, Naba Ningthoujam, an IDP from Churachandpur presently staying at Mangolnganbi Relief Camp and co-convenor of the Churachandpur Meitei United Committee — a conglomerate of five civil society organisations — said that the PUCL report is “a humiliation and an insult to IDPs.”
He recounted that the crisis did not begin on May 3, 2023, as stated in the PUCL report, but earlier. According to him, the unrest started on April 27, 2023, when an open gym in Churachandpur was vandalised and CCTV cameras across the town were destroyed. He further alleged that on April 29, 2023, the temple of Ibudhou Pakhangba at Thingkaphai was vandalised.
Ningthoujam stated that violence intensified on May 3 even before the rally organised by ATSUM at Churachandpur Public Ground. He alleged that Kuki militants set ablaze the Forest Beat Office at Singhat in the morning, followed by the burning of the Tuibong Forest Gate office and another at Churachandpur. At around 10:30 am, a Meitei driver was assaulted near Tuibong Forest office, he said. According to him, by the afternoon, reports emerged of Meitei houses being burnt at Torbung Bangla and Kangvai, and later in 16 localities of Churachandpur between 6 pm and 7 pm, Meitei households were attacked in a coordinated manner.
The Churachandpur Meitei United Committee questioned why such incidents were omitted from the PUCL report. “Four Meitei persons sustained bullet injuries during the attacks. How could sophisticated weapons be used so openly to drive people out, and yet such acts are skipped in the report?” the committee asked.
The IDPs further denied the PUCL’s claim that Kukis provided protection to Meiteis in Churachandpur. “We were attacked, our houses were burnt, and from 6 to 7 pm no authority, not even the Indian Army or police, came to protect us. We defended ourselves until the Army rescued us the next day. Even then, our convoy was stopped before we were sheltered temporarily in an Army camp until May 9,” Ningthoujam recalled.
The committee, while refuting the findings of the PUCL report, urged the rights body not to publish what they described as “incomplete and biased narratives” that ignore the experiences of displaced families.
The Churachandpur Meitei United Committee comprises five organisations — Meitei Society Manipur (Churachandpur), Meitei Youth Organisation (Churachandpur), Meitei Victims’ Group (Churachandpur), and Nupi Samaj Manipur.