CoTU refutes, questions
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Our Correspondent
KANGPOKPI, Jan 19 : The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) has flatly rejected the allegations that the Rajasthan School Wushu team was harassed and extorted during their return journey from Imphal after the 69th National School Games.
In a sharply worded statement, CoTU categorically stated that no such incident has been reported to any police station, security control room, or law-enforcement agency in Manipur to date. In a State currently under heightened security surveillance due to ongoing ethnic tensions, CoTU said it is implausible that an armed extortion incident at gunpoint invol- ving a school team could occur without triggering immediate official response or documentation.
“The complete absence of an FIR, General Diary entry, or any formal complaint decisively exposes the hollowness of these claims,” CoTU asserted, adding that the allegations collapse under even the most basic scrutiny.
CoTU further pointed out that the authorities of the Rajasthan School Wushu team and the parents concerned have failed to disclose even the most fundamental details—including the exact location, time, route taken, or the jurisdiction where the alleged incident supposedly occurred. “Without these essential facts, the claim remains nothing more than a manufactured narrative designed to incite fear, outrage, and suspicion,” the statement said.
Most alarmingly, CoTU condemned the reckless and malicious communal labelling of the alleged perpetrators as “Kuki militants.” The organisation questioned how non-locals, unfamiliar with Manipur’s complex ethnic landscape, languages, and identities, could arrive at such a specific and grave conclusion without presenting any evidence.
“No uniforms, no insignia, no language identification, no distinguishing markers—nothing whatsoever has been cited,” CoTU noted. “This raises a serious and troubling question: is this a deliberate attempt to communalise an unverified—or entirely non-existent—incident to further vilify an already traumatised tribal community?”
The committee warned that such irresponsible and inflammatory accusations endanger communal harmony, promote ethnic profiling, and further erode public trust, particularly at a time when Manipur is struggling for peace, healing, and reconciliation.
“Baseless allegations, unnamed locations, unidentified perpetrators, and communal branding do not constitute truth,” CoTU declared. “They constitute propaganda.”
KANGPOKPI, Jan 19 : The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) has flatly rejected the allegations that the Rajasthan School Wushu team was harassed and extorted during their return journey from Imphal after the 69th National School Games.
In a sharply worded statement, CoTU categorically stated that no such incident has been reported to any police station, security control room, or law-enforcement agency in Manipur to date. In a State currently under heightened security surveillance due to ongoing ethnic tensions, CoTU said it is implausible that an armed extortion incident at gunpoint invol- ving a school team could occur without triggering immediate official response or documentation.
“The complete absence of an FIR, General Diary entry, or any formal complaint decisively exposes the hollowness of these claims,” CoTU asserted, adding that the allegations collapse under even the most basic scrutiny.
CoTU further pointed out that the authorities of the Rajasthan School Wushu team and the parents concerned have failed to disclose even the most fundamental details—including the exact location, time, route taken, or the jurisdiction where the alleged incident supposedly occurred. “Without these essential facts, the claim remains nothing more than a manufactured narrative designed to incite fear, outrage, and suspicion,” the statement said.
Most alarmingly, CoTU condemned the reckless and malicious communal labelling of the alleged perpetrators as “Kuki militants.” The organisation questioned how non-locals, unfamiliar with Manipur’s complex ethnic landscape, languages, and identities, could arrive at such a specific and grave conclusion without presenting any evidence.
“No uniforms, no insignia, no language identification, no distinguishing markers—nothing whatsoever has been cited,” CoTU noted. “This raises a serious and troubling question: is this a deliberate attempt to communalise an unverified—or entirely non-existent—incident to further vilify an already traumatised tribal community?”
The committee warned that such irresponsible and inflammatory accusations endanger communal harmony, promote ethnic profiling, and further erode public trust, particularly at a time when Manipur is struggling for peace, healing, and reconciliation.
“Baseless allegations, unnamed locations, unidentified perpetrators, and communal branding do not constitute truth,” CoTU declared. “They constitute propaganda.”