In burning Manipur, armouries easy prey for loot
GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: At 7.30pm on Sunday evening, a day before Union minister Amit Shah touched down in Imphal for the first time since ethnic violence reared its head in Manipur, personnel of the Indian Army stopped a vehicle, and from it, recovered an INSAS rifle, 60 rounds of ammunition, a hand grenade, and a detonator. An army statement said that the three men had intended to carry out an attack on security forces near the city convention centre in Imphal East. While this attempt was foiled, the presence of these arms underlined a growing challenge for the security forces looking to restore normalcy in Manipur — the easy proliferation of sophisticated arms and ammunition, many of them stolen from government and police armouries.
On Sunday, even as there were fresh incidents of violence that erupted in Manipur, particularly in the Imphal valley, mobs looted arms and ammunition from several government armouries.
While a mob barged inside the headquarters of the Manipur Rifles and Indian Reserve Battalions in Imphal East and West, they targeted the Yairipok and Nongpok Sekmai police stations in Thoubal. A senior police officer from Thoubal, who asked not to be named said “They robbed hands on. At The Yairipok station, they entered the armoury and took away at least 56 guns. In Nongpok Sekmai, they took five guns from the police personnel there.”
While there is no clear aggregated number of exactly how many arms have been looted from police stations and armouries since May 3, when the ethnic violence that has torn the state apart first began, it has been a recurrent problem flagged by security agencies. On May 5, two days after the first wave of violence started, Manipur DGP P Doungel had said, “There have been 7-8 instances of looting of arms from police personnel and armoury by groups over 5,000 people. We appeal that the arms be returned otherwise we will be forced to take stringent actions.”
Three days later, chief minister N Biren Singh raised the issue again, saying that 1,041 arms were looted by “miscreants”, of which 214 only had been recovered until then. Overall, officials suspect that the count of missing weapons likely exceeds 1,500, with only 545 of the 1,432 weapons looted in the week between May 3 and 10 recovered, officials told HT.
A senior Assam Rifles officer posted in Manipur who has been at the helm of security operations said that it was not just the number, but the kind of weapons that is posing a challenge.
“The Manipur police use 5.56 mm INSAS rifles, and in addition the armouries nese AK-47 automatic rifles and Myanmar-made M16 automatic rifles that were either surrendered by militant groups or seized from them during operations. This is now a huge challenge,” the officer said.
An officer of the One Manipur Rifles (1MR) battalion posted in Imphal West said that security personnel were attempting to secure all armouries. “We are guarding weapons and have increased security at the armoury. No weapon was stolen from 1 MR, but we have heard reports of looting from 2 MR, and also in Imphal West. The paramilitary forces are helping in the security,” he said.
On May 3, ethnic violence began to course through Manipur in the wake of a Manipur high court order that recommended to the government that in the state with 53% of the population, be included in the scheduled tribe list. This prompted protests from tribal groups, particularly from the Kuki community, which in turn led to clashes that fanned across the state for days.
If the first epicentres were the Imphal valley, and the tribal districts of Churachandpur, violence soon spread across the state in districts such as Kakching, Jiribam, Kakgpokpi and Bishnupur. Even as the army was deployed on May 4, and families began streaming into relief camps and across the state borders looking for safety, Kuki homes and villages were targeted in Meitei dominated areas like the Imphal Valley, and Meiteis were driven out of their homes in the hill districts that have a dominant tribal population erupted, at least 80 people have been killed, over two hundred injured, over 1,700 homes gutted, and over 35,000 displaced from their homes. While a majority of the violence took place between May 3 and 6, intermittent outbursts of violence have continued to plague the state, showing the extent of the ethnic divide.
Separately on Sunday, chief minister Singh said that the government and army launched a massive crackdown against armed Kuki “terrorists” over the past four days, with 40 members of Kuki militant groups dead. He said that the crackdown was targeted against militants of Kuki militant groups that had signed a suspension of operations(SOO) agreement with the Centre and state government in August 2008 The agreement was groups, 17 under the umbrella group of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and eight under the umbrella of the United People’s Front. Significantly, under the agreement, cadres of these groups were to be confined to designated camps and their arms kept locked.
Seilen Haokip, a spokesperson of KNO said that their cadres have not left the designated camps, and are not those that have stolen arms. “Security forces have carried out inspection of the camps. Cadres of SoO groups are not involved in this fight. No cadres of ours have been killed in the crackdown,” Haokip said.
Vikram Singh, former Uttar Pradesh director’s general of police, said that the act of weapons being looted was reflective of the law-and-order situation prevailing in Manipur.
“This spells trouble in a place where there is large-scale violence. After all this is over, there should be a probe. Why were police in the state caught off guard? They should have been a step ahead,” Singh said.
Joseph Riamei, assistant professor at Guwahati-campus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) said that the presence of such arms was one reason for why the violence has not ebbed.
“We need to look at how the state government has not been able to safeguard police stations and armouries and arms are getting looted. How can we expect them to protect people?” he said.