Four personnel of Assam Rifles (AR) were seriously wounded when militants targeted a patrol near Saibol village on India-Myanmar border in the wee hours on November 28. Though no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack, the needle of suspicion points towards the outlawed People’s Liberation Army (PLA), one of the oldest outfits in the state, banned in 1979.
Earlier on September 13, a truck carrying AR personnel was ambushed by PLA militants on NH2 in Nambol town of Bishnupur district, in which two, including a junior commissioned officer, were martyred, and five others injured. The vehicle was on its way to the AR post in Maibam in Bishnupur from Imphal.
The militants initially fired on the tyres forcing it to stop a few meters away, and thereafter targeted the personnel inflicting casualties. They drove away in another waiting vehicle. Fortunately, fearing that their retaliatory fire in darkness could result in heavy casualties among the civilian, the AR men exercised restraint. PLA militants were arrested from Imphal on September 24, and weapons used in the ambush recovered.
Among the reasons attributed to the attacks is the erroneous impression floating among the valley-based Meiteis that the AR is biased and favourably inclined towards the hill-based Kukis, though the AR has exercised neutrality in dealing with the warring groups. On quite a few occasions, AR personnel manning the buffer zones restrained Manipur police commandos, all Meiteis, from crossing over to the Kuki-dominated areas. Matters came to such a pass that 40 MLAs from the valley wrote to the prime minister on August 10, 2023, that the AR be withdrawn from the state. This was soon followed by 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs sending a missive to the prime minister that the AR be retained.
Attacks on the security forces in the state in recent years had declined. With insurgency-related incidents on the wane, coupled with incessant demand for the revocation of the much-dreaded Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Centre revoked the Act from April 1, 2022, from the jurisdiction of 15 police stations in six districts. Irom Sharmila was on hunger strike for nearly 16 years from November 4, 2000, demanding the revocation of the AFSPA due to the unbridled powers bestowed on the armed forces operating in the area, and its blatant and arbitrary misuse by the security forces. In its verdict on July 8, 2016, on a PIL filed by the Extra Judicial Execution Victims Families Association of Manipur seeking justice in 1,528 cases of fake encounter, the apex court opined that there was truth in the allegations of fake encounters by Army and the police. It directed the security forces to desist from using “excessive and retaliatory force”, and that all cases of excessive use of force be probed.
The number of insurgency-related incidents, which had in recent years recorded a decline with just 97 reported in 2020, surged from 112 in 2021 to 226 in 2024. The rise in figures for 2023 and 2024 is attributed to the ethnic clashes that rocked the state since May 3, 2023, during which the militant groups had a field day. The militant groups left their bases in Myanmar and infiltrated into the valley. Having looted weapons from police armouries, the militants, along with two other Meitei outfits Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Lipun, went about their murderous spree with the death toll soon crossing 200, and sporadic incidents thereafter taking the toll to over 265. About 60,000 people displaced from their homes continue to languish in camps set up by the state government. Many of the militants who surrendered in the past chose to join the radical Arambai Tenggol due to the unbridled power it wields in the valley and the alleged patronage of former Chief Minister N Biren Singh and its founder Leishamba Sanajaoba, a Rajya Sabha MP. This dreaded outfit calls the shots in the state, and claims to be protectors of the Meitei community.
The recent tripartite agreement between the Centre, the State, and the Kuki-Zo groups extending the Suspension of Operations (SoO) has been a sore point that has been agitating the Meiteis. Singh had opposed the extension of the SoO and hence it was not extended in February 2024. With the imposition of President’s Rule in February this year, the Centre signed a tripartite agreement extending the SoO with certain modifications. While the Centre was ecstatic about the Kuki-Zo group having agreed to open NH2, the latter averred that vehicles were plying with Central Reserve Police Force escort. Yet, the Meiteis dread using the Kuki-dominated stretches passing through Kangpokpi.
The extension of the SoO with the Kuki-Zo group who are comfortably ensconced in their camps has caused flutters among the Valley Based Insurgent Groups (VBIG) comprising of seven Meiteis militant groups. In November 2023, cadre of a faction of United National Liberation Front led by Pambei surrendered before the government, but failed to deposit their weapons. They were in the forefront with Arambai Tenggol in the violence that had roiled the state from May 2023. Since the UNLF is the oldest militant outfit in the state having been raised in 1964, the other Meitei outfits are on a wait and watch mode. Given an opportunity with lucrative offers, they would in all probability jump on to the bandwagon of surrenderers and like their Kuki-Zo fellows prefer to stay in camps and live in peace.
While the Centre and the state are embroiled in arriving at a solution to the ethnic conflict, the State ought to send feelers to the VBIGs to surrender to the authorities with their weapons and convince them of the futility of prolonging their secessionist and sovereignty demand which is unachievable. A six-decades-long struggle by militant outfits has proved futile as they never can take on the might of the Indian security forces.
(The writer is a retired Inspector General of Police, CRPF)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.