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, Harinagar and Jakuradhor. All of them are broadly considered as part of the Borobekra region. The Borobekra Police Station is at Jukuradhor.Ibobi seeks time for Jiribam district, Imphal Free Press, 31 October 2016. 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 The Borobekra Subdivision consists of the southern half of the Jiribam district, which itself lies between the western great bend of the Barak River in the west and the Vangaitang range in the east. The district was added to Manipur by the British in 1832, transferring it from the newly annexed Cachar kingdom. The forested "Jiribam valley" was opened for agricultural settlement in 1907. Most of the settlers came from Cachar, including Bengalis as well as Meiteis. Rice and sugarcane were cultivated, and betel leaf (pan) in areas unsuitable for rice cultivation.
Borobekra and its surrounding villages (Guakhal, Harinagar and Jakuradhor) were likely settled during that time, or at any rate well before Indian independence, mostly by Bengali speakers. Borobekra, with a marina on the Barak River, developed into a key market town for the area. It ran a Friday market, serving all the people living on the banks of the Barak River, as far way as Pherzawl.
The Vangaitang range 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 After Manipur was merged into India, a Jiribam Subdivision was formed, encompassing the Jiribam valley as well as the Vangaitang range extending till Tipaimukh in the south. In due course, the southern and eastern hill regions were transferred to the hill district (originally Churachandpur, now Pherzawl), leaving only the valley and some of the foothills areas in the Jiribam subdivision. The foothill villages to the east of Borobekra, such as Phailian, Tuisen and Buangmun, populated by Hmar tribals, were also transferred to the administration of the hill district.
The Jiribam subdivision became part of the Imphal East district, and was divided into two revenue circles: the Jiri Circle in the north, and Barak Circle (or Borobekra Circle) in the south. The Barak Circle was headquartered at Borobekra. In December 2016, the Jiribam subdivision was made an independent district, and the revenue circles were upgraded to subdivisions.Subdivision & Blocks, Jiribam district administration, Government of Manipur, retrieved 21 November 2024.
A police station for the Borobekra region was approved in 2011,Govt approves financial implication for deployment of addl police force in Jiribam, Imphal Free Press, 11 December 2011. and was eventually inaugurated in 2016.Ibobi seeks time for Jiribam district, Imphal Free Press, 31 October 2016. It is in the Jakuradhor village, within a compound that also contains a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).Manipur: 2 men found dead day after Jiribam encounter; 6 missing, Hindustan Times, 12 November 2024. There is also an Assam Rifles camp at Guakhal.Swapnaneel Bhattacharjee, Rajnath meet over security, The Telegraph (India), 23 February 2018.
Insurgencies 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. The region was originally used by the groups in the 1960s as a launching pad to access East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), where training camps were run by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). 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.
Security expert E. M. Rammohan states that the hilly region bounded by NH-37 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. 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. Rammohan also states that HPC-Democracy was allied with UNLF.
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.
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.Role of Women in Conflict Management: A study of insurgency in valley areas of Manipur, Human Development Society, New Delhi, retrieved 20 November 2024. Afterwards, the Meitei insurgent groups were forced to leave the Jiribam and Tipaimukh areas.Parbung, Thanlon cleared of UGs : GOC, The Sangai Express, via e-pao.net, 22 January 2006.UNLF thumbs nose at Army - Militants ready to 'face any challenge', The Telegraph (India), 9 February 2006. The local people credited the 7th India Reserve Battalion (IRB) forces stationed at Jakuradhor,Sit in demands 7th IRB in Barak Circle, Imphal Free Press, 17 July 2014. and the 37th battalion of Assam Rifles stationed at Guakhal,Swapnaneel Bhattacharjee, Rajnath meet over security, The Telegraph (India), 23 February 2018. for re-establishing peace in the region.
Demography 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).Imphal EastDistrict Census Handbook, Census of India, 2011. The other major communities in the region are Bengalis and Meiteis. Bishnupriya Manipuris are also known to live in Borobekra.Namdev Sinha, History Of Manipur - Political & Social Aspects, page 131.
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.
2023–2026 Manipur conflict
Summer 2024 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.Greeshma Kuthar, Stagnant Strife: Disinformation draws Manipur’s last district into violence, The Caravan, 1 September 2024.
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.Manipur: Suspected militants set fire to houses, police outpost in Jiribam district, Scroll.in, 8 June 2024. 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.Sukrita Baruah, In Manipur, a fresh displacement as 2,000 pour into neighbouring Assam, The Indian Express, 11 June 2024.Tribal people of Jiribam separated from the Meitei community following recent violence, says Manipur tribal body, The Hindu, 12 June 2024.
November 2024 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.133 Manipur villagers displaced by ethnic conflict in Jiribam return home, The Hindu, 7 August 2024. In early October, the Hmar villagers of Zairawn felt safe enough to return to their village.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.
The Zairawn village was attacked on 7 November, allegedly by members of the Arambai Tenggol militia joined by the Pambei faction of UNLF which had signed a peace agreement with the government the previous November.Greeshma Kuthar, Mayhem continues in Manipur, Frontline, 24 November 2024. 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.Prabin Kalita, Mom of 3 was brutally tortured before being set ablaze in Manipur: Autopsy, The Times of India, 14 November 2024. 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.Meenakshi Ganguly, Authorities Fail to Address Ethnic Violence in India’s Manipur State, Human Rights Watch, 19 November 2024.Karishma Hasnat, More bodies recovered near Manipur’s Jiribam, toll in fresh spate of violence climbs to 20, The Print, 17 November 2024."No abduction in Cachar" Clarifies Chachar Police, Denying Kuki Inpi's Claim, Barak Bulletin, 18 November 2024. The worst of these incidents was near Borobekra.
On 11 November, roughly two dozen Hmar armed menRokibuz 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." arrived at Jakuradhor Karong on the Jiribam–Tipaimukh Road, perhaps some in shared auto rickshaws and others via the river. They asked the Meitei people of the locality to leave their properties and then started burning them down. Journalist Greeshma Kuthar points out that this was allowed to happen despite the presence of CRPF personnel. After about fifteen minutes, CRPF personnel reportedly asked the Hmar men to leave. According to Hmar Inpuri, a CRPF bullet-proof vehicle arrived on the scene soon afterwards, and opened indiscriminate fire. Ten of the Hmar armed men were killed. (Hmar Inpui claimed that three of them were captured by CRPF and beaten to death.)