New Delhi: Ten Kuki MLAs have written to Home Minister Amit Shah urging for the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to be reimposed in the valley area of Manipur, and for the Army and Assam Rifles to be given “full powers” to recover arms looted from police battalions.
The MLAs claimed that the police and security forces have not yet been able to recover the arms looted from police armouries amid the ethnic violence in the state as they have been “restrained” due to withdrawal of AFSPA from valley areas.
The Army and Assam Rifles don’t have legal sanction to enter most of the villages in the Imphal Valley for operations as they are not classified “disturbed areas” since the lifting of the AFSPA there. In Imphal Valley, the central forces do not have power to make arrests or independently carry out operations, as they are deployed to assist the police.
Of the 92 police stations in Manipur, the AFSPA has been removed from 19 stations across seven districts. The ‘disturbed area’ declaration under the AFSPA was in effect since 2004, but in April 2022, the notification was lifted from 15 police stations due to improvement in law and order.
“Both Meiteis and Kukis have armed groups supporting and assisting them. What makes crackdown a challenge in Imphal Valley is that it is a ‘peaceful area’ which restrains the forces from any overt action,” a source in the security establishment had told ThePrint.
The ongoing violence has claimed over 205 lives and displaced over 50,000 people, police data shows.
‘Abrogation of SoO will worsen conflict situation’
On the resolution demanding scrapping of the suspension of operations (SoO) agreements with armed militant groups — adopted by the 12th Manipur legislative assembly, and signed by 35 of 39 MLAs in the valley — the Kuki MLAs said in their letter to Shah that it was a “sinister ploy to demean the SoO groups” and its abrogation would worsen the conflict situation in Manipur.
“The agreement was signed with the intention and desire for long-lasting public peace and tranquility in the state. It is worthwhile to reiterate that unilateral withdrawal from SoO by the state government or any resolution in this regard is untenable as Ground Rules say that all issues of violation including withdrawal can only be initiated by a Joint Monitoring Group,” the letter states.
The SoO camps — which have become the focal point of the ongoing conflict in the state — were established as part of a pact signed on 22 August 2008 between Kuki militant groups and the central and Manipur governments, in light of the Kuki-Naga clashes in the 1990s.
According to the SoO agreement, members of these groups were required to suspend their operation as insurgents and stay within designated camps with their weapons securely stored in safe zones under a double-locking system.
The cadres were prohibited from opening fire, and the security forces from launching operations against them.
Although the agreement — aimed at halting the violence and “resolving” the conflict stemming from the Kukis’ demand for an “independent Kuki homeland” — is reviewed each year, it is extended annually by the MHA with minimal deliberation.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has time and again, including ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, promised to “solve” the long-pending issue if the BJP came to power in the state.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)