The National Investigation Agency (NIA)p which is probing several cases relating to the Manipur violence has learnt that a large part of the violence is being orchestrated from outside the state.
There are direct links with elements from other countries which the NIA has found. These persons are motivated and want the state to burn and hence are providing financial, tactical and logistic support to the ones who are carrying out the violence, an official part of the probe told Organiser.
Another official said that the primary external links are from Myanmar from where the weapons have come into the state in large numbers. These are not locally procured weapons that are being used. The weapons are sophisticated and are being pumped into the state from Myanmar. The foreign link is very evident, the investigations have shown.
First signs
The first major proof relating to a foreign link came up following the investigation into one Solomona, a resident of Mizoram. He was booked by the NIA for illegally supplying arms to the trouble makers in Manipur.
The NIA learnt that he along with Lalngaihawma, Lalmuanawma and others were involved in a criminal conspiracy of procurement of weapons and other explosive material. They would source the weapons from Myanmar and then route it into Manipur. These weapons would then be used to undertake acts of terror in the state.
This angle came to light when the NIA found in the possession of Solomona arms and ammunition. It was found that he was illegally supplying these weapons which were highly sophisticated in nature.
The development comes in the wake of several organisations representing the Meiti community claiming that the Kuki-Zo insurgents were getting their arms from Myanmar.
The larger conspiracy
What one should note in the Solomona case is that he originally hails from Mizoram. The fact that he was tasked to supply the arms to the insurgents in Manipur clearly indicates that this problem that is being created is not with respect to Manipur alone.
An Intelligence Bureau official informed that the issue does not pertain to Manipur alone. It is a bigger problem and the protest in Manipur which was a localised issue was used as a trigger to incite violence in the state.
However the officer noted that the issue does not pertain to Manipur alone. There are many players in the rest of Northeast who are contributing to this issue. They are linked with major terror groups in Myanmar with whose help they are going on a rampage in Manipur. However when one looks at the issue closely, it is becoming more evident with each passing day that the perpetrators of the crimes want this issue to spread beyond Manipur.
There are sufficient inputs suggesting that the next target of these elements would be Mizoram and then gradually increase tensions in the rest of Northeast. This is the larger plan and hence it very important that issues in Manipur are immediately resolved so that the spread could be curtailed.
What is the agenda
The fact that the current dispensation at the Centre has given so much emphasis to the region is something that i is bothering many. Northeast for many was a happy hunting ground to go about their trade of illegal arms, drugs and of course large-scale infiltrations.
However, the approach towards Northeast has changed significantly. The emphasis has been on inclusiveness which was missing in this region for very long. The primary grouse of the people from this region is that in the rest of the country they are not looked at Indians. This changed largely in the past 10 to 11 years. The fact that there was so much push on the development sector was another factor that improved the region largely. The building of extensive roads made sure that this region was easily connected to the rest of the country.
Further on the security front there has been a lot of push when comes to holding talks with insurgent groups. Many outfits have joined the mainstream today and are very much part of governance. This has in turn brought down the constant fighting which one would get to see on a daily basis otherwise.
However a lot has changed and this has not gone down too well with the external elements. This is the reason that so much of their resources are being spent on Manipur so that there is division among the people. More importantly the larger agenda is to take the whole of Northeast back to the dark ages, so that the crimes by the dozens of cartels, arms smugglers and touts indulging in infiltration can operate at leisure.
