Imphal: Over 100 Meitei women armed with sticks and slingshots sit on the roadside, guarding a section of a highway leading to the Leimakhong area of Imphal, vigilantly observing passing vehicles and occasionally stopping suspicious ones for checking. Their faces are covered with a white and orange paste, to beat the scorching sun.
While this drill is on, one of them gets a phone call. As she speaks on the phone in her native language, she raises her brows and nods her head. She then cuts the call and makes an announcement for all the women to gather, be “alert”, and scan vehicles more vigilantly.
The call, a tip-off from a trusted Meitei policeman, informs them about the movement of the central forces including the Assam Rifles and the Army, accused of bias, in their area. They only trust the “Meitei police”, they say.
It has almost been two months since the violence began in Manipur on 3 May, but the clashes between the two communities — the Kukis dominating the hills, and Meiteis, dominating the valley — continue, with mobs armed with sophisticated weapons wreaking havoc on the streets of Manipur.
Violence escalated following a solidarity march by the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur to “protect the interest of the tribals” against the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The fallout of the violence, however, has not just been a fractured state with both communities facing its brunt, but a “completely divided” police force that has failed to restore any normalcy. Instead, it appears to be working against it.
Amid the violence, more than 1,500 Meitei and Kuki policemen mysteriously went missing in early May, only to reappear in police stations close to their homes days later, say police sources. The Kuki officers assigned to the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley retreated to the hills, while Meitei officers stationed in Kuki areas refused to return, exacerbating the divide. Many went on leave, and over 50 officers remain missing. Many of them were also reposted closer to home.
The repercussions of this division are evident in the handling of cases related to the violence. Complaints from Kukis about their burnt villages in the valley were allegedly not registered in Imphal, where Meiteis dominate the police stations. Similarly, cases filed by Meiteis regarding losses in Kuki-dominated areas were allegedly not addressed there. Instead, numerous zero First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed, pending investigation. Zero FIRs are filed irrespective of the police station the alleged crime was committed under.
The rift has also led to accusations that the police are colluding with miscreants from their own communities.
“Such is the divide that they are now identifying themselves as Meitei and Kuki police. There is no Manipur police left. Barring a few, who are holding the ground, the force has been completely divided on ethnic lines,” a senior officer said to ThePrint on condition of anonymity. “This divide is not just seen among the police but also administrative offices. Most Kuki government officials have left Imphal. There is mutual mistrust and the law and order in the state has collapsed,” he added.
Acknowledging the divide, Director General of Police Rajiv Singh called the situation “unfortunate” and “challenging”. He, however, added that he has a zero-tolerance policy for policemen who betray the uniform.
“Manipur police has a record of being one of the best forces that bravely fought insurgency. Unfortunately, because of the current situation, the policemen too are going through a personal crisis. They have seen their families die, their houses being burnt. There is no doubt that the police have to do their job of maintaining law and order and that must be upheld, but this angle cannot be ignored,” Singh, who assumed the role of DGP on 1 June amid escalating tensions, replacing P. Doungel, a Kuki officer, said.
Speaking to ThePrint, a Meitei head constable who came to Imphal from a Kuki dominated area seconded Singh’s sentiment. “It is a very difficult time for us. I have seen my house being reduced to ashes by the Kukis, but still I am standing here, doing my duty. There definitely is hatred towards them (Kukis) but I am a policeman first,” he said.
Also, he pointed out, police personnel are hesitant to give any intel inputs against their own villagers to the forces for fear of ostracisation. “How will we face the backlash back home?” he said.
Combing operations on both sides have failed, allegedly because policemen alert villagers in advance. “Senior officers are in talks with the lower rungs to keep them together. They are being told that they need to work together with the security forces for the betterment of the state and to bring back normalcy,” a police source said.
The ongoing violence has claimed at least 150 lives, displaced over 50,000 people, and resulted in the looting of 4,615 firearms from police armouries, which remain unrecovered. As many as 5,960 FIRs related to the violence have been filed, but significant arrests have yet to be made. Only 4,983 general arrests were conducted, with most individuals subsequently released, said police sources.
Also read: In Manipur, police armouries stand empty. Mobs stormed them, looted weapons, ‘rode off on scooters’
Manipur police, connivance & inaction
Over 5,000 weapons, including AK-47s, INSAS rifles, pistols, LMGs, and grenades, were looted from various sources, with little resistance from the Manipur police, said sources.
The looting occurred at the Manipur Training Centre, 7th Manipur Rifles Battalion, 8th Indian Reserve Battalion, and local police station armories, they said.
The Heingang police station, falling under Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s constituency (a Meitei area), registered 10 FIRs related to the loot, but the investigation has not begun in any of those. The policemen at the station are sitting without any weapons, waiting for the situation to “normalise”.
“Investigation can only start once the fight is over. How can we investigate the cases right now when the tempers are so high?” a senior officer at the station asked.
When asked how many weapons were looted from this area, the officer said, “We don’t know. They also took away all the record registers, so it is difficult to say how many were looted.”
Pointing at the laxity of the police, a source in the security establishment said that they have been asking the police to identify the kingpins who led the crowd to loot the weapons, but the investigation has made no headway.
Despite the presence of CCTV cameras in all police stations, no arrests have been made, and the identification of the masterminds behind the weapon looting has made no progress.
“They do not wish to act against their own men,” the source said.
On the Kuki side too, many weapons were taken away by the locals from the Suspension of Operation (SoO) camps which were under the watch of the local police.
The SoO agreement was signed by the Kuki militant groups with the central and Manipur government in 2008 following the Kuki-Naga clashes. According to the agreement, the cadres of these groups were to be confined to designated camps and their arms kept locked in safe zones under a double locking system.
“The state police are in charge of monitoring these camps. When the violence broke out among the Kukis, these armouries were opened for them. Everyone is aware that the local police did not take any action and the weapons that are in lock and key under the agreement were given away,” a source alleged. “It is a joke,” the source added.
Responding to these allegations, DGP Singh said the investigation in all of these cases is underway and he will be looking into the allegations of policemen handing over weapons to the public.
“We will carry out a thorough and professional investigation in all these aspects. The current priority, however, is to maintain law and order so that normalcy can be returned,” he said.
Combing operations ‘a sham’
This divide within the police force is also impeding the combing operations conducted by security forces to retrieve arms looted from police armories, according to sources in the security establishment.
Policemen allegedly provide advance warnings and tip-offs to the villages before joint raids, resulting in failed operations. Villagers are thus prepared beforehand, clearing the area and leaving nothing for the forces to find, another source said.
“The combing operations have become a sham,” the source said, adding, “It is frustrating because we know that the information has been leaked by some local policeman, but we cannot do much about it. Protocol dictates involving the local police during these raids, which works against the forces’ efforts.”
A more serious accusation suggests that policemen in some instances have also misled and diverted the forces during operations.
In one instance, the forces were allegedly directed to a village in the east, which they said was under threat but nothing was found there. Meanwhile, a Kuki village in another direction was burnt down by Meitei miscreants, the source quoted above said.
“They managed to divert the forces and clear the way for the Meiteis to vandalise property,” the source said, adding, “This is happening on both sides.”
DGP Singh, however, denied the allegations saying that there could be a few “black sheep”, but the integrity of the entire force cannot be doubted by stray incidents.
“Black sheep are everywhere. This doesn’t mean that policing will become ineffective because of a few people. These combing operations are very much a success and they need to be seen in the context of how they are helping in confidence building measures. We may not succeed in recovering weapons each time but that does not mean that they are not a success,” he said.
Attempts on to counsel them
Singh said that since this divide in the police came out in the open, he has been speaking to his policemen regularly to motivate them.
“I have been personally motivating them by saying that we as a force are above any sectarian, ethnic violence and our job is to restore peace, no matter what,” he said. “I tell them that central forces can help us but unless the local police take charge and support them in every way, peace cannot return,” he said.
According to a source in the administration, several sessions were taken up by senior IPS officers to counsel them. But was this divide in the Manipur police always present?
A senior officer said that the two communities within the police force have always had their differences but this time, things went “too far”. Meiteis, the officer said, have always been insecure because of Kukis always holding senior positions in the force.
“No Meiteis have ever held senior positions, while Kukis have been director general of police, chief secretaries in the past. The Meiteis feel that they have lost out because they do not have the ST reservation and have always been sidelined. There has always been this mistrust between the two communities which has manifested into what we are seeing today,” he said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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