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Coordinates: 24°37′58″N 93°05′47″E / 24.6329°N 93.0963°E / 24.6329; 93.0963
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Borobekra
Barabekra
Village
Borobekra is located in Manipur
Borobekra
Borobekra
Location in Manipur, India
Borobekra is located in India
Borobekra
Borobekra
Borobekra (India)
Coordinates: 24°37′58″N 93°05′47″E / 24.6329°N 93.0963°E / 24.6329; 93.0963
Country India
StateManipur
DistrictJiribam
Area
 • Total
114.8 km2 (44.3 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total
741
 • Density6.5/km2 (17/sq mi)
Language(s)
 • OfficialMeitei
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
Vehicle registrationMN
Websitemanipur.gov.in
Map

Borobekra, also spelt Barabekra, is a village in the Jiribam district in Manipur, India, and the headquarters of an eponymous subdivision. It is about 30 km south of Jiribam, the headquarters of the district. The village is on the bank of the Barak River, near the confluence of a tributary that flows down from the Vangaitang range to the east. The Barak River flows north in this region, up to Jirimukh, where it turns northwest. The Barak River also forms the border with the Assam state of India.

The villages surrounding Borobekra include Guakhal,[a] Harinagar and Jakuradhor.[b] All of them are broadly considered as part of the Borobekra region. The Borobekra Police Station is at Jukuradhor.[3] The north–south-running Jiribam–Tipaimukh highway passes through the Guakhal village, close to Borobekra, and continues on to Harinagar and Jakuradhor.

Geography and History

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The entire Vangaitang range adjacent to the present-day Jiribam district was part of the Cachar kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. After annexing the kingdom in 1832, the British transferred the Vangaitang range to Manipur, setting the border along the western stretch of Barak River[c] and the Jiri River.[4][5] In 1907, the Manipur government opened the "Jiribam valley" between the rivers and the Vangaitang range for agricultural settlement,[6] and, by 1911, 14,346 bighas of land is said to have been settled.[7] Most of the settlers in Jiribam came from Cachar, very few from the Imphal Valley (Manipur valley).[8] They included Bengalis as well as Meiteis. Rice and sugarcane were cultivated, and betel leaf (pan) in areas unsuitable for rice cultivation.[7]

The Vangaitang range itself is the traditional abode of the Hmar tribes (part of the Kuki-Zo conglomeration). The Hmars live in small settlements at the foothills and at the edges of forest areas.

Independent India

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Borobekra and all the surrounding villages (Guakhal, Harinagar and Jakuradhor) were already settled prior to India's independence.[1] Borobekra was a market town that ran a Friday market which was the main market for the people on Barak River, as far way as Pherzawl.[9][d]

Initially, Jiribam subdivision was formed to encompass the Vangaitang range from the Jiri River in the north and Tipaimukh in the south. In due course, the southern and eastern hill regions were transferred to the Churachandpur district (now Pherzawl district), leaving only the valley and some of the foothills regions in the Jiribam subdivision.[10] The foothill villages to the east of Borobekra, such as Phailian, Tuisen and Buangmun, are administratively in Pherzawl district.[11]

The Jiribam subdivision was divided into two revenue circles: the Jiri Circle in the north, and Barak Circle in the south. The Barak Circle was headquartered at Borobekra.

In December 2016, the Jiribam subdivision was made an independent district.[12] The two revenue circles were upgraded to Jiribam subdivision and Borobekra subdivision respectively.[13]

A police station for the Jiribam region was approved in 2011,[14] and was eventually inaugurated in 2016.[15] It is in the Jakuradhor village, within a compound that also contains a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).[16] There is also an Assam Rifles camp at Guakhal.[17]

Insurgencies

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According to multiple sources, the proscribed Meitei insurgent groups, United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People's Liberation Army of Manipur (PLA), used the Jiribam valley and the neighbouring Cachar district of Assam as their main area of operations.[18][19] The region was originally used by Meitei insurgent groups in the 1960s as a launching pad to access the training camps run by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). With the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, this activity was briefly halted, but it resumed in 1975 with the advent of military rule in Bangladesh.[20]

Security expert E. M. Rammohan states that the hilly region bounded by NH-37[e] in the north, Thangjing Hills in the east, Tipaimukh Road in the south, and the Jiribam–Tipaimukh Road on the west, was a "free zone", with minimal presence of security forces, which was adopted by UNLF, PLA and Hmar People's Convention–Democracy for setting up camps and bases.[21] The PLA and UNLF are said to have entered this area after the Kuki-Naga conflict (in the 1990s) by helping resettle the displaced Kukis in Churachandpur district and obtaining land in return.[22] Rammohan also states that HPC-Democracy was allied with UNLF.[21]

In the 1990s, UNLF is said to have forcibly driven out many Bengali residents of Borobekra, settling Meiteis in their place. The Bengalis that remained were subject to violence and extortion.[23]

The entente between UNLF and the Hmar community came to an end in 2006 after the mass rape of 21 women and girls allegedly carried out by the UNLF and the allied group Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) in the neighbouring Tipaimukh subdivision.[24][25] Afterwards, the insurgent groups were forced to leave the area.[26][27] The local people credited the 7th India Reserve Battalion (IRB) forces stationed at Jakuradhor,[28] and the 37th battalion of Assam Rifles stationed at Guakhal,[29] for re-establishing peace in the region.

Demography

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The Borobekra census village has a population of 741 people as per the 2011 census, of which 27% is made of Scheduled Tribes (Kuki-Zo people).[30][31] The other major communities in the region are Bengalis and Meiteis. Bishnupriya Manipuris are also known to live in Borobekra.[32]

The villages Guakhal (population: 824), Harinagar (population: 421), and Jakuradhor–Part 1 (population: 1486) have only small fractions of Scheduled Tribe populations. But Jakuradhor–Part 2 (population: 1171) has 18 percent Scheduled Tribes.[31]

2023–2024 Manipur violence

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When the ethnic conflict in Manipur erupted between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo people on 3 May 2023, the Jiribam district remained relatively at peace for almost a year. The peace was shattered by twin murders in May–June 2024, the first of a Kuki individual named Seigoulen Singson in May, and the second of a Meitei individual named Soibam Saratkumar Singh in June. Rumours spread that Saratkumar's body was founded beheaded, inflaming Meitei feelings. Meitei mobs led by Arambai Tenggol started torching houses in the Jiribam area, prompting the Hmars and Thadou Kukis to flee to relief camps in neighbouring Assam.[23]

This invited retaliation by Hmars and Thadou Kukis in the Borobekra subdivision in the south. On 8 June, armed tribals (referred to as "suspected militants" in the media) set fire to a police outpost at Chotobekra and continued by torching several houses. The district authorities evacuated 239 Meitei people from their villages and to a shelter in the sports complex in Jiribam.[33] Some Meiteis who felt vulnerable also took shelter in the Borobekra police station at Jakuradhor. They said that, soon after they left, their houses were torched.[34][35]

On 1 August, the Jiribam district administration brokered a peace agreement between Meiteis and Hmars in order to facilitate the return of displaced residents. The agreement was disowned by Hmar Inpui. Nevertheless, on 7 August, the residents of the Mongbung Meitei village were escorted back to their homes.[36] In early October, the Hmar villagers of Zairawn felt safe enough to return to their village.[37]

The Zairawn village was attacked on 7 November, alleged by Arambai Tenggol militia joined by the Pambei faction of UNLF which had signed a peace agreement with the government the previous November.[38] The villagers were chased out and some 17 houses were burnt down. A 31-year-old school teacher, a mother of three, was captured, brutally tortured, and burnt alive along with her house.[39][38] The grisly killing of the woman sent shock waves through the Kuki-Zo community, and initiated a spiral of violence in various parts of th state resulting in at least 21 deaths.[40][41][42] The worst of these incidents was near Borobekra.

On 11 November, roughly two dozen Hmar armed men[43] arrived at a market area called Jakuradhor Karong on the Jiribam–Tipaimukh Road, perhaps some in shared auto rickshaws and others via the river. They asked the Meiteis to leave their properties and started burning them down. According to journalist Greeshma Kuthar, this was done in the presence of CRPF personnel, who had a camp adjacent to the police station a few hundred metres to the south. After fifteen minutes, the CRPF personnel asked the Hmar men to leave, and soon afterwards a CRPF bullet-proof vehicle that arrived on the scene opened fire, killing 10 Hmar men.[38]

The Manipur Police however released a statement saying that the Hmar men attacked the police station cum CRPF camp further south, and that the deaths occurred under retaliatory fire by the CRPF. They said that one of the CRPF men was also injured and was being treated in a hospital.[44]

The surviving Hmar men are believed to have abducted an elderly Meitei woman, along with her two daughters and three grandchildren. All six people were subsequently killed, whose bodies were found in the Jiri River and the Barak River a few days later, some showing marks of torture inflicted on them.[45]

As of November 2024, the cases remain under investigation by the National Investigation Agency.[46] The killing of women and children led to widespread protests by the Meitei population of the Imphal Valley, inviting curfews and Internet shutdowns. The central government has also declared six police station jurisdictions, including Jiribam, as "disturbed areas" under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,[47] and sent 70 additional companies of central armed police forces to maintain law and order.[48]

Notes

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  1. ^ Alternative spellings: "Gwakhal",[1] "Guwakhal".[2]
  2. ^ Alternative spellings: "Jakurador", "Jakuradhar"[1] and "Jakhradawr".
  3. ^ The Barak River flows south till Tipaimukh and then makes an almost 180°-bend to flow north till Jirimukh.
  4. ^ Pherzawl itself is not on the bank of the Barak River, but it could access the river through a port called Taithu-ghat nearby.
  5. ^ NH-37 was earlier calleld National Highway 53.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Notification No. IJ/2/56", Manipur Gazette, 16 August 1956, pp. 15–16 – via archive.org
  2. ^ Security forces hold joint combing operations in Jiribam after attempt to torch home, The Hindu, 27 June 2024.
  3. ^ Ibobi seeks time for Jiribam district, Imphal Free Press, 31 October 2016. ProQuest 1835307404
  4. ^ Sanjeev, Thingnam (2015), "Recasting Space: Politics of frontier-making", in Arambam Noni; Kangujam Sanatomba (eds.), Colonialism and Resistance: Society and State in Manipur, Routledge, p. 243, ISBN 978-1-317-27066-9
  5. ^ Goshwami, Hareshwar (2019). History of the People of Manipur (Revised ed.). YAOL. pp. 24–25, 251. ISBN 978-1-9993057-0-3 – via archive.org.
  6. ^ Harvey, C. W. L. (1932), Administration Report of The Manipur State For The Year 1931-32, Imphal: The State Printing Press, p. 44 – via archive.org
  7. ^ a b Higgins, J. C. (1912), Administration Report of The Manipur State For The Year 1911-12, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co, p. 4 – via archive.org
  8. ^ Harvey, C. W. L. (1932), Administration Report of The Manipur State For The Year 1931-32, Imphal: The State Printing Press, p. 55 – via archive.org
  9. ^ Village Survey Monograph: 16—Pherzawl (PDF), Census of India 1961, Superintendent of Census Operations, Manipur, 1965, p. 2
  10. ^ Manipur Administrative Atlas (PDF), Census of India, Government of India, 2005, pp. 12–19
  11. ^ Churachandpur District Census Handbook (PDF), Directorate of Census Operations, Manipur, 2001, p. 92
  12. ^ "Creation of new districts could be game-changer in Manipur polls | opinion". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  13. ^ Subdivision & Blocks, Jiribam district administration, Government of Manipur, retrieved 21 November 2024.
  14. ^ Govt approves financial implication for deployment of addl police force in Jiribam, Imphal Free Press, 11 December 2011.
  15. ^ Ibobi seeks time for Jiribam district, Imphal Free Press, 31 October 2016. ProQuest 1835307404
  16. ^ Manipur: 2 men found dead day after Jiribam encounter; 6 missing, Hindustan Times, 12 November 2024.
  17. ^ Swapnaneel Bhattacharjee, Rajnath meet over security, The Telegraph (India), 23 February 2018.
  18. ^ Laishram, Dhanabir (2007), North-East in Benthic Zone, Akansha Publishing House, p. 90, ISBN 9788183701143, UNLF and PLA's main area of operation is Manipur's Jiribam valley and Cachar. In the recent past, a unified command of MPLF enduringly engaged with the Border Security Force in a gun-fight for four days in which the later had to withdrew without attaining any significant result.
  19. ^ Hussain, Wasbir (2013), "Ethno-Nationalism and the Politics of Terror in India's Northeast", in P. R. Kumaraswamy; Ian Copland (eds.), South Asia: The Spectre of Terrorism, Routledge, p. 89, ISBN 9781317967729, Insurgent politics in the region registered a very important development in the year 2000—the signing of a deal for joint operations by the Assamese ULFA and the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), a Manipuri insurgent group whose primary area of operation has been Manipur's Jiribam valley and neighbouring Assam's Cachar district.
  20. ^ Dar, Maloy Krishna (2006), Fulcrum of Evil: ISI, CIA, Al Qaeda Nexus, Delhi: Manas Publications, p. 108, ISBN 81-7049-278-5 – via archive.org
  21. ^ a b Rammohan, E. N. (April 2021), "Manipur: A degenerated insurgency", USI Journal, archived from the original on 25 April 2021
  22. ^ Chadha, Vivek (2005), Low Intensity Conflicts in India: An Analysis, SAGE, pp. 318–319, ISBN 978-0-7619-3325-0 – via archive.org
  23. ^ a b Greeshma Kuthar, Stagnant Strife: Disinformation draws Manipur’s last district into violence, The Caravan, 1 September 2024.
  24. ^ Hmingchullo, Ruth (2017), "Ethics in Journalism from a Human Rights Perspective", in Paromita Das; Charu Joshi; G. P. Pandey (eds.), Problems and Perspectives of the Relationship between the Media and Human Rights, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 118–120, ISBN 9781443878326
  25. ^ Role of Women in Conflict Management: A study of insurgency in valley areas of Manipur, Human Development Society, New Delhi, retrieved 20 November 2024.
  26. ^ Parbung, Thanlon cleared of UGs : GOC, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 22 January 2006.
  27. ^ UNLF thumbs nose at Army - Militants ready to 'face any challenge', The Telegraph (India), 9 February 2006.
  28. ^ Sit in demands 7th IRB in Barak Circle, Imphal Free Press, 17 July 2014. ProQuest 1545673732
  29. ^ Swapnaneel Bhattacharjee, Rajnath meet over security, The Telegraph (India), 23 February 2018.
  30. ^ Imphal EastDistrict Census Handbook, Census of India, 2011.
  31. ^ a b "Primary census abstract at town, village and ward level, Manipur - District Imphal East - 2011". 2011 Census of India. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 7 January 2023.
  32. ^ Namdev Sinha, History Of Manipur - Political & Social Aspects, page 131.
  33. ^ Manipur: Suspected militants set fire to houses, police outpost in Jiribam district, Scroll.in, 8 June 2024.
  34. ^ Sukrita Baruah, In Manipur, a fresh displacement as 2,000 pour into neighbouring Assam, The Indian Express, 11 June 2024.
  35. ^ Tribal people of Jiribam separated from the Meitei community following recent violence, says Manipur tribal body, The Hindu, 12 June 2024.
  36. ^ 133 Manipur villagers displaced by ethnic conflict in Jiribam return home, The Hindu, 7 August 2024.
  37. ^ Sukrita Baruah, A small Manipuri village had escaped the brunt of violence. A surprise attack there has now put the state on edge, The Indian Express, 19 November 2024.
  38. ^ a b c Greeshma Kuthar, Mayhem continues in Manipur, Frontline, 24 November 2024.
  39. ^ Prabin Kalita, Mom of 3 was brutally tortured before being set ablaze in Manipur: Autopsy, The Times of India, 14 November 2024.
  40. ^ Meenakshi Ganguly, Authorities Fail to Address Ethnic Violence in India’s Manipur State, Human Rights Watch, 19 November 2024.
  41. ^ Karishma Hasnat, More bodies recovered near Manipur’s Jiribam, toll in fresh spate of violence climbs to 20, The Print, 17 November 2024.
  42. ^ "No abduction in Cachar" Clarifies Chachar Police, Denying Kuki Inpi's Claim, Barak Bulletin, 18 November 2024.
  43. ^ Rokibuz Zaman, In Manipur relief camp that came under attack, a grieving Meitei family wants a passage out, Scroll.in, 18 November 2024. "That afternoon, a group of 25-30 armed Hmar people came from the Barak riverside and reached the Jakuradhor market, eyewitnesses and the security officials told Scroll."
  44. ^ Manipur violence: 11 suspected militants killed in encounter with CRPF in Jiribam district, The Times of India, 11 November 2024.
  45. ^ Debanish Achom, Autopsy Reveals Chilling Details Of Meitei Family Kidnapped, Killed By Kuki Militants In Manipur, NDTV News, 24 November 2024.
  46. ^ NIA begins probe into three Manipur violence cases, The Hindu, 26 November 2024.
  47. ^ Vijaita Singh, Centre reimposes AFSPA in six police station limits in Manipur, The Hindu, 14 November 2024.
  48. ^ Manipur to get 70 more CAPF companies as toll in 19 months hits 258, The Times of India, 23 November 2024.
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