IMPHAL, June 4: The proscribed United National Liberation Front (UNLF) has clarified that the ongoing movement spearheaded by JCILPS to implement ILPS in Manipur is neither instigated nor sponsored by UNLF and that Khomdram Ratan is not related to the outfit in any way.
A statement issued by M Sakhen Deputy Director Department of Publicity of the outfit contended that the movement of the JCILPS and UNLF are two separate entities with different goals.
It asserted that the struggle taken up by UNLF is to retain the lost sovereignty of Manipur from the colonial rule of India while the one spearheaded by JCILPS is people’s movement to save the indigenous population of the state from the unabated influx of outsiders.
Rubbishing the reports linking the outfit’s struggle with that of JCILPS movement, it claimed that the report published in a national daily was a plot jointly taken up by the Indian government and its intelligence agency to mislead the people’s movement taken up by JCILPS.
The fact that JCILPS movement is against the migrant influx from mainland India and the assimilation policy of India speaks for itself that such misleading propaganda is imminent, it said.
At the same time, clarifying that Khomdram Ratan is not a cadre of the outfit and not in the list of the outfit’s enrolment register,
(contd on page 4)it said that the photo of Ratan that went viral on social media was manipulated.
Referring to the picture of Ratan which went viral, it said the intention of uploading the picture in the name of a tribal man and the swift action from the part of the government without proper authentication are two areas needed to be assessed carefully.
It observed that the whole controversial episode arising out of the picture uploaded in the internet could be a part of India’s oldest “Divide and Rule” policy to hamper the people’s movement by further widening the gap between the Hills and Valley.
It appealed the general public that it is high time to unitedly stand against such sinister design of the colonial rule.