One of the key objectives to impose President’s rule in Manipur was to ensure that peace returns, and all anti-social elements come around and support this initiative.
Since the imposition of President’s rule in the state, the security forces have made major progress. Officials dealing with the situation in Manipur tell Organiser that the number of extortions have come down and the violent situation has largely been brought under control.
In a major development, the Arambai Tenggol, a radical armed group surrendered 246 weapons on Thursday. In fact, Thursday was the deadline set by Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to surrender weapons that were looted from the state’s armouries during the conflict.
Tough action
On February 20, Bhalla had appealed to the people of all communities to surrender weapons that were looted from the state’s armouries during the conflict. The Governor said if the weapons were surrendered within a week, then no punitive action would be taken. However if anyone refused to honour the deadline, then strict action would follow.
Since the violence began, 6,000 weapons have been looted. As of September 2024, the state reported that the authorities had managed to recover 1,200 weapons. The rest continue to be in circulation. However on Thursday one got to witness unprecedented scenes when a stream of vehicles of the Arambai Tenggol packed with weapons arrived at the 1st MR complex in Imphal West. In all 246 guns of varying sizes had been seized.
In addition to this, 61 weapons had been surrendered in other parts of the state. Since the deadline was set on February 20 and before the surrender by the Arambai Tenggol, a total of 110 weapons had been surrendered in the hill districts of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Pherzawl, and Jiribam. Officials are confident that in the days to come more surrenders would take place.
A statement by the Manipur police read, “such voluntary surrender of weapons
will significantly help in restoring peace, communal harmony and lawfulness in the state. As the seven-day period granted for voluntary surrender is set to conclude today, all concerned individuals, especially the youths, are strongly requested to come forward and surrender any looted or illegally held arms… Together, let us work towards a safer and more secure future of Manipur.”
The strategy in Manipur is pretty straight forward. The security forces do not want to go all out and engage in combat to restore peace in the state. The first step is getting the radical groups to surrender all the looted weapons. While appeals to surrender weapons have been made in the past, this is the first time that such a call has worked.
Once the weapons are surrendered, the next step would be to crack down on the militant groups and then remove illegal checkpoints and escort convoys transporting people as well as goods.
While the Arambai Tenggol has come on board, the Kuki-Zo groups ITLF and COTU are not on the same page. They say that the surrender of weapons on Thursday its a move just to garner sympathy and legitimacy. Further the TLF and COTU also condemned the members of the Arambai Tenggol for meeting with the Governor.
In a statement, the Kuki-ZO groups said, ‘ submission of 300 looted arms by Arambai Tenggol today is a mere gesture, accounting for only 5% of the 6,000 looted arms from the Imphal valley. This move is a strategic attempt to improve their public image, particularly after their meeting with the Governor of Manipur. It is a tactical move to garner sympathy and legitimacy… Arambai Tenggol is responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Kuki-Zo, which involves the killing of more than 230 Kuki-Zo, forced displacement of over 40,000 Kuki-Zo, burning of more than 7,000 houses and 360 places of worship… The Governor’s meeting with Arambai Tenggol sends a disturbing message that the state is willing to negotiate with perpetrators of violence while ignoring the cries of their victims. This is a clear betrayal of justice and a direct insult to the survivors of ethnic violence.’
In addition to getting these groups to surrender the weapons and cracking down on the militia, the security forces also have to deal with the ongoing extortion racket. This is also being taken care of and largely extortions have gone down, officials point out.
Data on extortion and drugs
In the past four months, Manipur has reported 80 cases of extortion. Further Manipur also reported 22 drugs and 12 arms cases during the same period.
The Manipur police said that the Kangleipak Communist Party (People’s War Group), or KCP (PWG) was involved in the highest number of cases relating to extortion.
The KCP (PWG) has been used to attack civilians and carry out extortions in the valley areas. This is being done to keep the tensions simmering, the Intelligence Bureau has found.
The People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Progressive), or PREPAK (PRO) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its political wing Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) are also involved in several such cases, the police said. These include extortion, drugs, arms, cash recovery, arson, infiltration, kidnapping and targeted killing.
The highest number of cases relate to extortion (80). This is followed by drug smuggling (22), keeping or smuggling illegal and looted weapons (12) followed by kidnapping (9). All this data is for a period of the past four months, the police also said.
The other groups that are involved in these crimes are United People’s Party of Kangleipak (UPPK), the National Revolutionary Front of Manipur (NRFM), Socialist Revolution Party Kangleipak (SOREPA), United Kuki Revolutionary Army (UKRA), Volunteers Welfare, KCP (MC Progressive), KCP (MC), KCP (KK Nganba), Kuni
National Army (KNA), KCP (Ibungo Ngangom), KCP (Apunba), United Kuki National Army (UKNA), and UNLF (Ningon Macha Group), police data would show.
Officials say that the situation is extremely complex. However they add that the imposition of President’s rule was a necessity. This helped in getting the central and state forces to coordinate with each other. This is something that one got to witness in J&K. While it did work in J&K, the security officials are confident that the same can be implemented in Manipur as well.
