After his house set on fire, Manipur BJP neta’s ancestral home torched

GUWAHATI: Unidentified miscreants vandalised and set on fire the ancestral house of Manipur BJP spokesperson and Thadou tribe leader, T Michael Lamjathang Haokip, in Churachandpur district on Saturday.
“3rd attack - Phatthei In (Blessed Home) - Mom and Dad’s residence in Peniel village, Manipur by ultra Kuki supremacists and extremist groups. Any of my actions shouldn’t have been combined with my parents and families.I will not stop to stand for justice, truth and non-violence,” Haokip wrote on X.
Condemning the arson, CM N Biren Singh said besides punishing the perpetrators, the govt will take action against officers who did not ensure security despite threats.
“The repeated targeting of our people (Thadou in this case), often under the guise of peace rallies, is a deeply troubling trend. Such acts of provocation will not be tolerated. We will ensure that those responsible are held accountable,” Biren said. The incident took place when members of the Kuki-Zo community were taking out rallies demanding a separate administration and protesting against an audio clip containing objectionable comments made allegedly by CM Biren, which the CMO has already clarified is a doctored clip.
Last Sunday, a group of unidentified people, some of them armed, vandalised the BJP spokesperson’s own house in which his parents and four families displaced by the ongoing violence in the state live. The attackers also fired shots in the air.
After the Sunday attack, a video appeared on social media of a man brandishing a gun and a bullet and threatening to kill Haokip, who filed a police case saying that two people asked members of a WhatsApp group to kill him and one of the two even promised to give his “village land” to anyone who claims the life of the BJP spokesperson. The residence of Haokip at Peniel village was targeted hours after he took part in a televised panel discussion on “Kuki Supremacy and its Agenda” on a local channel on Sunday, during which he spoke about the oppression faced by the Thadou community at the hands of radical Kuki supremacists. The first time Haokip’s house was attacked was during the peak of the ethnic strife in the state last November.