A year later, Manipur is still not back to normal after the Meitei-Kuki ethnic violence
Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:
India's top anti-terror agency NIA has said Manipur insurgents hiding in Myanmar infiltrated the state amid ethnic violence last year and trained “impressionable youth” to take part in gunfights.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said in a complaint to a court in Assam's Guwahati on March 27 that the China-Myanmar module of insurgent group NSCN(IM) provided logistical and other support to banned terrorist organizations KYKL and the PLA.
NDTV has seen a copy of the cost overview.
The banned Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are Meitei insurgent groups. The Nagalim National Socialist Council (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN(IM), is a Naga insurgent group that signed a framework agreement with the government that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described as a “historic” step towards bringing peace.
Giving a background to the case in the chargesheet, the NIA said the Center has received information about a transnational conspiracy hatched by the Myanmar-based leadership of the 'terrorist outfits' to destabilize the security situation in Manipur and 'wage a war against the Government of India”.
The KYKL and PLA leadership in Myanmar decided to infiltrate their insurgents into Indian territory to carry out terror attacks, the NIA said. To this end, the NSCN(IM) leadership has promised them safe passage, arms, ammunition, explosives and other terrorist hardware, the NIA said in the background note that is part of the charge sheet.
The ethnic violence that began in May 2023 between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in the hill districts of southern Manipur and some other hill areas, provided a 'fertile ground' for the Myanmar-based tribes . leaders of these terror groups must exploit, the NIA said in the charge sheet.
Manipur police commandos had arrested five armed men in military camouflage from an SUV during routine checks in the capital Imphal in September 2023. All five were later granted bail after protests from locals; However, the NIA immediately arrested one of them, Moirangthem Anand Singh, who turned out to be a highly trained member of the PLA, according to the complaint.
The NIA said in the charge sheet that Anand mobilized local youth for arms training to escalate ethnic strife in Manipur. In July 2023, he participated in a weapons training camp in Manipur organized by two more PLA insurgents, which taught 80 to 90 youths how to handle firearms, the NIA said.
“The investigation reveals that the accused criminal conspired with the intention of carrying out violent terror attacks targeting the rival Kuki-Zo community with banned arms and ammunition looted from various government sources,” the NIA said in the 'analysis of evidence '. part of the cost overview.
“The suspects were thus part of the larger transnational conspiracy hatched by the Myanmar-based leadership of terror outfits operationally active in the northeastern Indian states to exploit the ongoing ethnic unrest in Manipur and carry out terror attacks to combat the worsening security situation in Manipur. the NIA said.
The NIA had also arrested Seiminlun Gangte as one of the main suspects in an SUV blast in Bishnupur, 45 km from Imphal, in June last year.
“Not only misleading, but also cruel,” says NSCN(IM)
The NSCN(IM), in a statement shared with the media, alleged that the Center – despite having signed a ceasefire agreement and been holding talks for 27 years – is supporting a proxy war against the Center by using the Myanmar-based Kuki National Army (B). or KNA(B), and the People's Defense Force (PDF).
The allegations are “not only misleading, but also cruel and vicious, as they are too far removed from accuracy and are not at all morally ethical,” the NSCN(IM) said.
The Kuki tribes had fought with the Nagas in the 1990s after the Nagas accused them of encroaching on their land. Many from both tribes died in that conflict.
“The security forces… are using the Kukis as frontal forces to engage in bloody discord against the Nagas and provide all logistical support to the Kuki militant groups,” the NSCN(IM) alleged in the statement.
In May 2023, the month when the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki began, the NSCN(IM) had asked the two communities to ensure that hostilities between them do not affect the Nagas living in the violence-hit state. The NSCN(IM) had alleged that some “Kuki militants” had attacked a village where members of the Kom community – a small Naga tribe – live in Manipur's Kangathei.
The Manipur Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on February 29 asking the Center to scrap the controversial Suspension of Operations (SoO) Agreement with around 25 Kuki-Zo rebel groups. The deadline for renewal of the SoO agreement expired that day. The Kuki-Zo rebel groups signed the tripartite SoO agreement with the Center and the Manipur government in 2008.
The more than twenty Kuki-Zo insurgent groups fall under two umbrella groups: the Kuki National Organization (KNO) and the United Popular Front (UPF). These two representatives of the others signed the SoO agreement. They demand a separate country for the Kukis.
The ethnic violence left more than 220 people dead and nearly 50,000 internally displaced. A year later, thousands are still living in relief camps in both the Meitei-dominated valley and Kuki-dominated hill areas.
