‘300 Meiteis from Manipur border town flee to Myanmar’

Imphal: The ongoing civil unrest in Manipur has taken a new turn with 300 Meiteis living in the border town of Moreh reportedly entering neighbouring Myanmar for shelter.
This has come at a time when the N Biren Singh government has given refuge to around 500 illegal Myanmarese immigrants — who escaped their strife-torn Junta-ruled country — in Imphal.
The committee recently set up by the Manipur government to check illegal immigrants has identified more than 2,000 Myanmarese who entered the state and are being kept in shelter homes here.
Located in the easternmost corner of Manipur, Moreh houses a mixed population of more than 30,000 Kukis, Meiteis, Tamils, Punjabis, Muslims, Bengalis, Biharis, etc. with Kukis being the dominant community.
When violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, some hotels, shops and houses and a religious structure were torched by mobs at Moreh, the gateway to Southeast Asia and the focal point of India’s ambitious “Act East Policy.”
Subsequently, around 4,000 persons took shelter at the camp of 5 BN Assam Rifles (AR) and police complexes at Moreh, about 110 km from Imphal.