Guwahati: A huge group of women from the Kuki-Zo community held a protest demonstration in Manipur's Kangpokpi district on Sunday against Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remark in the Parliament.
Around ten thousand Kuki-Zo women participated in the sit-in-protest organised by the women's wing of the Committee on Tribal Unity Sadar Hills (CoTU), as per the attendance record.
The protestors held placards with messages for Mr Shah.
"Amit Shah needs to own his mistake", "Amit Shah needs to clarify his tongue slip in Parliament", "We will pay a heavy price for Amit Shah's tongue slip", read the placards.
Several other placards, stressing the Kuki-Zo people were not illegal infiltrators but Indian citizens, also featured in the protest demonstration.
The Home Minister had in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday said problems started in Manipur with the influx of Kuki refugees from neighbouring Myanmar after the military rulers there started a crackdown against militants in 2021.
The Kuki refugees started settling down in the jungles in the Manipur valley, raising fears of a demographic change in the region, Mr Shah said.
The unrest in the Manipur valley began when rumours began to circulate that the refugee settlements have been declared as villages, Mr Shah said.
The protestors, in their placards, said their existence in the area predates British rule, when international boundaries were drawn in Manipur.
"We have a historical presence in Manipur preceding India's independence", one of the placards read.
The "Manipur mayhem" is a pre-planned ethnic cleansing of the Kuki-Zo people aimed at snatching their land against constitutional provisions, the protestors alleged in their message for Amit Shah.
"Amit Shah, your remark looks as if the Centre and the state are hands-in-glove in the ethnic cleansing", a placard read.
Calling his remark "deeply troublesome", they demanded accountability from the Home Minister.
"Instead of sacking Biren (Chief Minister N Biren Singh) you still defended him, what is your agenda?", another placard read.
The protestors also raised slogans asserting their Indian identity, and condemning Amit Shah's remark. They demanded justice, and a Constitutional solution.
"The Kuki-Zo women in Kangpokpi congregated today to demonstrate our disappointment over the disheartening remark of the Union Home Minister in Parliament regarding the ethnic conflict in Manipur," the CoTU's Women Wing Convenor, Neinu, said.