New Delhi : A fact finding team over Manipur violence on Tuesday appealed to the central government to take action against all law breakers in the State to maintain peaceful co-existence in the volatile State.
“We were used to live with the Kuki community. There was no violence. But since May last year when the ongoing violence was triggered, both the communities have been separated. We call upon the Government of India to restore peace, rule of law, and maintain peaceful coexistence in Manipur,” said Dr Seram Rojesh, convenor of the Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee (DMCC) and a member of the fact finding team to ETV Bharat.
The DMCC also vehemently criticized the Assam Rifles for not taking action to nab the “Kuki militants” who are actively involved in the ongoing carnage.
“Taking a serious note of the persistent attack by Kuki militants on State forces in Moreh town, the commanding officer of 5 Assam Rifles said that the force will give befitting response if the attack continues further. However, there was no action taken against the Kuki militants and miscreants by the Assam Rifles,” said Rojesh.
He said that on January 2, special commandos of the Manipur police posted at Moreh hospital have been attacked by Kuki militants using sniffer rifles and other sophisticated weapons. “It clearly shows that Kuki militants have enjoyed the impunity from the government of India under the suspension of operation (SoO) and particularly from one of the central security forces (Assam Rifles),” said Rojesh.
It is worth mentioning that several Kuki militants are currently under SoO agreement with the central government. “We demand that such suspension of operation should be cancelled so that the Kuki militants can't take advantage to create terror by taking advantage of the agreement,” said Rojesh.
He claimed that the Kuki militants are also getting support from other terrorist groups from across the border. “The Kuki militants who are mainly involved in the drug business are involved in the ongoing violence in Manipur,” claimed Rojesh.
Interestingly, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in a recent report has said that narco-terrorism appears to be an increasing problem in the South Asia region, and investigations have indicated that proceeds of drug trafficking are increasingly being used to fund terrorism, support armed groups, and instigate political violence.
“Most of the heroin found in South Asia in recent years appears to have originated primarily in South-West Asia, having been manufactured from opium produced in Afghanistan. As per United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, traffickers from Myanmar, which accounted for some 6 percent of global illicit opium production in 2021, regularly supply some of the north eastern States with heroin,” the INCB report for 2023 said.
The INCB report said that opium continues to be illicitly cultivated in India, primarily in the northeastern States. It said that in the period 2020-21, authorities in India reported the eradication of about 4,400 ha of illicitly cultivated opium poppy.
The Manipur government has been continuously taking action against illegal opium poppy cultivation by destroying such cultivating fields.
“It’s the State government who are taking action against the poppy cultivation. The militants should fight against the government, but instead they are attacking the Meetei community in the State,” said Rojesh.
It is worth mentioning that a tribunal setup by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has adjudicated seven valley-based Meitei insurgent organizations of Manipur as ‘unlawful associations’.
The tribunal consisting of Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi at Gauhati high court after a thorough examination has confirmed that there is sufficient cause to declare the insurgent groups like the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) and its political wing, the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing, the Manipur Peoples’ Army (MPA), the Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and its armed wing, the “Red Army”, the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, also called the “Red Army”, the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK) along with all its factions, wings and front organisations, as ‘unlawful associations’.
