New concern: Insurgents aiding mobs on either side in Manipur

Over the past decade, valley-based insurgent groups had lost public support and their camps were largely in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Sources said when violence began on May 3, a large number of UNLF cadres were in Manipur because the state government was then pursuing talks with the group to help cadres surrender.

“When the violence began, these cadres got automatically sucked into the conflict. Following the UNLF example, other valley-based insurgent groups too have now joined Meitei mobs as they see it as an opportunity to be counted again. In fact, some of the precision firing we witnessed in some recent instances are suspected to be the handiwork of these cadres. There are also reports that they are not only providing arms and ammunition but also training raiding groups,” a senior security officer said.

Sources said the presence of these cadres has been found mostly in Bishnupur, Sugnu in Kakching district, and the Khamenlok area of Kangpokpi district.

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With over a month since ethnic clashes began, fault lines are deepening in Manipur where civilians, on either side of the divide, are picking up guns to defend themselves and target each other. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Tensions continue on ground, especially in areas where the Meitei-dominated plains give way to the Kuki-populated hills. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Three people were injured in a suspected IED blast in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Wednesday evening. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The Indian Express came across two young men – a 25-year-old Meitei hardware shop owner and a 23-year-old Kuki science teacher – who have spent these past weeks in trenches dug up in their villages, keeping a watch for any unwanted movement. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A makeshift bunker made of sandbags and a tin roof at a Meitei village to the east of the Dimapur-Churachandpur highway in Manipur. (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A graduate from a college in Bishnupur district, this 25-year-old spends more than 12 hours every day in the bunker south of the village. “I can’t counter such heavy firing with this single barrel. It does not even fire properly," he says.

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Standing guard in one of these bunkers is a 26-year-old science graduate working as a bank executive. Until recently, he had never fired or laid his hands on a gun. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A locally assembled ‘pumpi gun’, which is triggered by pulling the rope and is potent enough to blow up a vehicle, is seen at a Kuki village close to Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts in Manipur (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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For additional security, the locals have dug up the road and mounted a ‘pumpi gun’ to ensure no one can get close to the Kuki village, which is located near the Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts in Manipur. (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The village, with open fields before it, has a ring of 14 sandbag bunkers. Beyond the bunkers are a line of halogen bulbs strung up on bamboo poles to watch for movements. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Destruction raged throughout Haokip Veng as ethnic violence rocked Manipur. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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This picture was taken at Haokip Veng, a Kuki colony in Imphal, which has been completely burned down (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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To the left of the bamboo mesh, the fields have been dug up with JCBs to make military-style trenches and bunkers where gunmen keep watch day and night for any movement from the Meitei side. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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After initial large-scale clashes from May 3 to 5, Manipur has seen a second wave of violence, primarily in the form of arson and shootings in areas between the Kuki-dominated hills and the Meitei-dominated valley this week (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The worst incident in the fresh flare-up was on the night of June 13, when nine people were killed in incidents of firing and arson in Aigejang village in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Amid clashes, Dominic Lumon, the Archbishop of Imphal claimed that 249 churches belonging to Meitei Christians had been destroyed so far (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

“The groups had been relegated to the sidelines in the past decade, ushering in an era of peace in Manipur. In the last few years, multiple cadres of these groups had begun surrendering as they did not see any future for their secessionist agenda. But the ongoing violence has the potential to re-energise them, infuse them with fresh cadres and rejuvenate their movement. This is bad news,” a senior officer of the Army said.

The presence of UNLF cadres in the valley was also confirmed during combing operations. On June 20, the Army arrested four UNLF cadres with a 51-mm mortar at Lilong in Thoubal district of the state. Last Sunday, the armed forces apprehended 12 KYKL cadres with arms, ammunition and war-like stores during an operation in Itham village in Imphal East. But they were released following pressure from Meira Paibis, a women’s group that confronted the security personnel.

On the other side of the divide, Kuki insurgent outfits which entered into SoO pacts have been helping with guns and men. Following the Khoken incident in Kangpokpi district earlier this month – three Kuki civilians were killed following gunfire by a mob – an Assam Rifles combing operation revealed the presence of a Kuki Revolutionary Army cadre in the village.