Located off the National Highway-2 in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, Hotel Elegance has not had a guest since May 3. Yet, behind its locked front gates, there is activity around the clock. A new watchtower has been built at the far end of the hotel’s compound atop which there is always someone with a pair of binoculars intently looking for any kind of action in the rolling hills that dot the horizon.
“It is from the hills that the Kuki militants fire,” said Abung Irom, a Meitei community activist in his late thirties.
Irom is from the hill town of Churachandpur, about 60 km from the state capital Imphal. He now lives in a refugee camp in Bishnupur mid-way between the two places, though he spends most of his time at Hotel Elegance coordinating relief and self-defence efforts.
Like thousands of people in Manipur, he lost his home to rampaging mobs in the first week of May, when ethnic violence broke out between the Kuki and the Meitei communities. Over 100 people have been killed so far, more than half in the first three days of the violence.
The violence has reflected the state’s sharp geographical divide.
In the hills, where Kukis outnumber Meiteis, people like Irom fled…
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