Attacks on security forces highlights need for all out offensive against Kuki terror groups
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Jaideep Mazumdar
Monday’s (Nov 11) attack underlines two important things : that the Kuki-Zo terrorists are now bold enough to attack security forces, and that they have the full support of the Kuki-Zo community.
Kuki-Zo terrorists crossed a red line by attacking a police station in trouble-torn Manipur’s Jiribam district Monday (November 11).
The attack has, once again, underscored the urgent need to launch an all-out offensive against the Kuki terror groups which have been operating in Manipur and which now feel emboldened to attack police stations and camps of central forces.
According to Manipur Police sources, the actual target of the attack by a large group of about 40 Kuki-Zo terrorists were a few dozen Meitei families who had taken shelter at the Borobekera police station in Jiribam district that borders Assam.
The Meitis staying within and in the vicinity of the police station premises had been displaced from their homes in other parts of the district by the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Jiribam launched by the Kuki-Zo terrorists.
The Kuki-Zo terrorists also tried to loot weapons from the police station, apart from torching a few Meitei houses in that village. A CRPF post located at Jakuradhor hamlet next to Borobekera also came under attack, leading to retaliation by the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).
In the gunfight between the CRPF, who were joined by State police personnel, and the terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons, ten terrorists were killed and a few more were injured. The injured were carried away by their fellow-terrorists.
According to the police, three AK-47 rifles, four SLRs, two INSAS rifles, one RPG, and a pump-action gun, besides bullet-proof helmets and jackets, sophisticated communication sets and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists.
While fleeing from Borobekera-Jakuradhor, the Kuki-Zo terrorists also attacked a few neighbouring Meitei hamlets and abducted six Meiteis, including an eight-year-old girl and an eight-month-old child.
Far from dissociating themselves from the terrorists, Kuki-Zo community and civil society leaders blamed security forces for launching an “unprovoked attack on Hmar village defence volunteers” and called for a complete shutdown of the district Tuesday (November 12). Hmars are a small sub-tribe who belong to the larger Zo community that includes Kukis, Mizos and Chins.
Monday’s attack by Kuki-Zo terrorists, and the subsequent reaction of the Kuki-Zo community organisations, underlines two important things: that the terrorists are now bold enough to attack security forces, and that they have the full support of the Kuki-Zo community in their mission to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Meiteis.
Ethnic cleansing has been a prime objective of all Kuki-Zo terrorists for a long time. That was evident in the manner in which the terrorists drove away people of other communities--Nagas, Meiteis, Tamils, Bengalis, Biharis and Marwaris--from Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border over the years.
This ethnic cleansing was launched in Jiribam, a district inhabited by people from Meitei, Kuki-Zo, Gorkha, Assamese, Bengali, Bihari and a few other communities.
The Kuki-Zo objective has been to drive away people from other communities, especially the Meiteis, from the hill districts in order to establish their hegemony over those areas and include the ‘cleansed’ areas in their ‘Kuki-Zo homeland’. The Kuki-Zo community wants a separate State for themselves.
Along with the offensives against Meiteis in Jiribam district, Kuki-Zo terrorists have also intensified their attacks on Meitei villages and hamlets in the foothills of the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley.
The sole purpose of all these attacks is to claim the areas cleansed of Meiteis as their own in furtherance of their long-term objective of forming a separate ‘Kukiland’ State carved out of Manipur.
In pursuance of this objective, Kuki-Zo organisations have been encouraging largescale influx of their kin from Myanmar. Tens of thousands of people of Kuki-Chin ethnicity have settled down in the hill districts of Manipur and radically altered the demography of vast swathes of Manipur.
These infiltrators have also encroached on forests and are largely engaged in illegal poppy cultivation which provides huge earnings.
The ranks of the Kuki-Zo terror outfits have also been buttressed by battle-hardened fellow rebels belonging to the Chin ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) of Myanmar which are fighting the military regime there. The Chin EAOs have also provided sophisticated arms to their brethren on this side of the border.
Monday’s attack on police and the CRPF shows that the Kuki-Zo terror outfits are now ready to take on Indian security forces. This is an ominous development and if allowed to go unchallenged, the situation in Manipur will hurtle out of control.
The Kuki-Zo terror outfits have been given a lot of leeway by India’s Central security forces which have used them in the past as a buffer against Meitei and Naga militants.
Indian security forces have reportedly provided material support in the past to the Kuki-Zo outfits and treated them with a lot of indulgence, often condoning their depredations. In the process, these outfits have become the proverbial Frankestein’s monsters.
The mollycoddling of Kuki-Zo terror outfits must stop if Manipur is to be pulled back from the brink of going the way of war-ravaged Angola or Libya. An all-out offensive against the Kuki-Zo terror outfits must be launched immediately by combined forces of the Army, Assam Rifles, CAPFs and state police.
The Union Government should issue clear-cut instructions to the central security forces that they have to liquidate the Kuki-Zo terror outfits at all costs.
And Kuki-Zo community and civil society organisations should also be told in unequivocal terms that Manipur will not be divided. They have to be told that they have to learn to live in harmony with the Meiteis, Nagas and other communities in Manipur and their dream of ‘Kukiland’ should be abandoned forever.
At the same time, the Union Government also has to push Meitei community organisations and powerful civil society bodies to get cadres of Meitei rebel outfits and militant organisations like the Arambai Tenggol to surrender. These outfits have to be disarmed and dissolved.
Such a move has to be accompanied by iron-clad guarantees that the central security forces would provide complete protection to Meiteis, especially those in the remote areas and in the hill districts of the State.
Manipur is hurtling down a deep crevasse into complete anarchy and a civil war which will be almost impossible to control if the Union Government does not act immediately and root out the menace of Kuki-Zo terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
Swarajya
Monday’s (Nov 11) attack underlines two important things : that the Kuki-Zo terrorists are now bold enough to attack security forces, and that they have the full support of the Kuki-Zo community.
Kuki-Zo terrorists crossed a red line by attacking a police station in trouble-torn Manipur’s Jiribam district Monday (November 11).
The attack has, once again, underscored the urgent need to launch an all-out offensive against the Kuki terror groups which have been operating in Manipur and which now feel emboldened to attack police stations and camps of central forces.
According to Manipur Police sources, the actual target of the attack by a large group of about 40 Kuki-Zo terrorists were a few dozen Meitei families who had taken shelter at the Borobekera police station in Jiribam district that borders Assam.
The Meitis staying within and in the vicinity of the police station premises had been displaced from their homes in other parts of the district by the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Jiribam launched by the Kuki-Zo terrorists.
The Kuki-Zo terrorists also tried to loot weapons from the police station, apart from torching a few Meitei houses in that village. A CRPF post located at Jakuradhor hamlet next to Borobekera also came under attack, leading to retaliation by the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).
In the gunfight between the CRPF, who were joined by State police personnel, and the terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons, ten terrorists were killed and a few more were injured. The injured were carried away by their fellow-terrorists.
According to the police, three AK-47 rifles, four SLRs, two INSAS rifles, one RPG, and a pump-action gun, besides bullet-proof helmets and jackets, sophisticated communication sets and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists.
While fleeing from Borobekera-Jakuradhor, the Kuki-Zo terrorists also attacked a few neighbouring Meitei hamlets and abducted six Meiteis, including an eight-year-old girl and an eight-month-old child.
Far from dissociating themselves from the terrorists, Kuki-Zo community and civil society leaders blamed security forces for launching an “unprovoked attack on Hmar village defence volunteers” and called for a complete shutdown of the district Tuesday (November 12). Hmars are a small sub-tribe who belong to the larger Zo community that includes Kukis, Mizos and Chins.
Monday’s attack by Kuki-Zo terrorists, and the subsequent reaction of the Kuki-Zo community organisations, underlines two important things: that the terrorists are now bold enough to attack security forces, and that they have the full support of the Kuki-Zo community in their mission to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Meiteis.
Ethnic cleansing has been a prime objective of all Kuki-Zo terrorists for a long time. That was evident in the manner in which the terrorists drove away people of other communities--Nagas, Meiteis, Tamils, Bengalis, Biharis and Marwaris--from Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border over the years.
This ethnic cleansing was launched in Jiribam, a district inhabited by people from Meitei, Kuki-Zo, Gorkha, Assamese, Bengali, Bihari and a few other communities.
The Kuki-Zo objective has been to drive away people from other communities, especially the Meiteis, from the hill districts in order to establish their hegemony over those areas and include the ‘cleansed’ areas in their ‘Kuki-Zo homeland’. The Kuki-Zo community wants a separate State for themselves.
Along with the offensives against Meiteis in Jiribam district, Kuki-Zo terrorists have also intensified their attacks on Meitei villages and hamlets in the foothills of the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley.
The sole purpose of all these attacks is to claim the areas cleansed of Meiteis as their own in furtherance of their long-term objective of forming a separate ‘Kukiland’ State carved out of Manipur.
In pursuance of this objective, Kuki-Zo organisations have been encouraging largescale influx of their kin from Myanmar. Tens of thousands of people of Kuki-Chin ethnicity have settled down in the hill districts of Manipur and radically altered the demography of vast swathes of Manipur.
These infiltrators have also encroached on forests and are largely engaged in illegal poppy cultivation which provides huge earnings.
The ranks of the Kuki-Zo terror outfits have also been buttressed by battle-hardened fellow rebels belonging to the Chin ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) of Myanmar which are fighting the military regime there. The Chin EAOs have also provided sophisticated arms to their brethren on this side of the border.
Monday’s attack on police and the CRPF shows that the Kuki-Zo terror outfits are now ready to take on Indian security forces. This is an ominous development and if allowed to go unchallenged, the situation in Manipur will hurtle out of control.
The Kuki-Zo terror outfits have been given a lot of leeway by India’s Central security forces which have used them in the past as a buffer against Meitei and Naga militants.
Indian security forces have reportedly provided material support in the past to the Kuki-Zo outfits and treated them with a lot of indulgence, often condoning their depredations. In the process, these outfits have become the proverbial Frankestein’s monsters.
The mollycoddling of Kuki-Zo terror outfits must stop if Manipur is to be pulled back from the brink of going the way of war-ravaged Angola or Libya. An all-out offensive against the Kuki-Zo terror outfits must be launched immediately by combined forces of the Army, Assam Rifles, CAPFs and state police.
The Union Government should issue clear-cut instructions to the central security forces that they have to liquidate the Kuki-Zo terror outfits at all costs.
And Kuki-Zo community and civil society organisations should also be told in unequivocal terms that Manipur will not be divided. They have to be told that they have to learn to live in harmony with the Meiteis, Nagas and other communities in Manipur and their dream of ‘Kukiland’ should be abandoned forever.
At the same time, the Union Government also has to push Meitei community organisations and powerful civil society bodies to get cadres of Meitei rebel outfits and militant organisations like the Arambai Tenggol to surrender. These outfits have to be disarmed and dissolved.
Such a move has to be accompanied by iron-clad guarantees that the central security forces would provide complete protection to Meiteis, especially those in the remote areas and in the hill districts of the State.
Manipur is hurtling down a deep crevasse into complete anarchy and a civil war which will be almost impossible to control if the Union Government does not act immediately and root out the menace of Kuki-Zo terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
Swarajya