On Wednesday 12 September, a powerful explosive
was found near Manipur Secretariat South Block which houses the offices
of the home minister and the chief secretary. In the last two weeks,
Imphal and other urban areas of Manipur have seen four blasts in which
two people have died and at least 15 people are battling for life at the
Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Imphal. As a knee-jerk
reaction, the state government has called the rebels to come forward
for talks.
After months of peace, the Ibobi Singh-led
Congress government finds itself once again challenged by the
underground rebel groups in the state capital Imphal, ahead of the
panchayat polls in the state to be held on Thursday 13 September. A
total of 4,620 candidates are in fray for panchayat election which
consist of 60 seats of Zila Parishad, 161 Pradhans and 1514 Gram
Panchayat seats. Scrutiny for the election was held on 7 August in which
one Zila Parishad member, one Pradhan and 57 gram panchayat members
were elected uncontested while one seat each from the Zila Parishad,
Pradhan and Gram Panchayat seat remained vacant. A total of 6,51,817
electorates are expected to cast their votes for deciding the fate of
the candidates.
The rebels in Manipur, under the banner of CorCom
(Coordination Committee), comprising of seven underground rebel outfits
operating in the valley areas of the state, remain the main challenger
to the Congress. Congress has not only retained power in the state in
this year’s Assembly polls, but has also proved its political supremacy
in Manipur by winning 42 out of the 60 seats, an addition of 12 seats
compared to the 2007 Assembly elections. While the rebels had earlier
targeted Congress candidates and workers mostly in rural Manipur, a
distinct pattern of urban insurgency seems to be emerging in the state.
“The panchayat election in Manipur will be held
on September 13 and these groups are trying their best to remind the
people about their existence,” said home minister L Gaikhangam, who has
urged upon the rebels to shun violence and come forward for dialogue.
Sources in Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) say that the state
government has requested the Centre to work towards bringing in the
rebel groups, particularly those operating in the valley areas of the
state, on board for peace talks. “We have definite inputs that the
rebels want to create trouble in urban areas because it effects the
morale in the entire state. They would try to carry out low intensity
attacks to prove two vital points — that they are still powerful and
that the state government is clearly lacking in terms of providing
security even in state capital, forget other areas,” reveals a senior
officer of Special Branch of Manipur Police on condition of anonymity.
The state home department is further alarmed by
the fact that the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), whose supremo
RK Meghen is lodged in Guwahati Central Jail, had claimed
responsibility for a blast on 5 September and the People's Liberation
Army (PLA), the armed wing of the outlawed Revolutionary Peoples’ Front
(RPF) of Manipur, claimed the responsibilities of subsequent blasts on 7
and 8 September. These claims have reiterated that the blast was the
first coordinate attack to be launched against patrol teams of the
Indian Army in Manipur with the objective of scaring them away from the
state. The involvement of the two of the strongest rebel outfits in
attacks launched in busy areas of state capital has rattled the state
government, political watchers believe that the entire state will once
again see tension prevail.
Apart from the recent blasts, several
insurgency-related incidents have also been reported, including parcels
carrying explosives being delivered to candidates and party workers in
many villages in the districts of Thoubal and Imphal East.
In a recent incident, men who claimed to be
members of the proscribed PREPAK (PRO) allegedly threatened RTI
activists to stop investigating into the discrepancies related with the
implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (MGNREGS). Kh Pasot, a RTI activist alleges, “We have applied for
RTI because the member and pradhan of Lairenkabi have denied us of our
rights. In these 5 years, we have never received our full rights as
labourers and in doing so we have also faced the wrath of some
underground groups (UGs). Few months back when we were preparing to file
our first RTI, armed men claiming to be cadres of Kanglei Yawol Kanna
Lup (KYKL) drag us out of our homes and thrashed us in front of the
public. And now, some cadres of the PREPAK (PRO) have warned us to halt
our investigation in MGNREGS and other stuffs which could defame the
pradhan or the gram panchayat members.” Thokchom Ranjit, another RTI
activist from Lairenkabi gram panchayat added “It is very unfortunate
that our UG brothers are on the wrong side of justice and instead of
finding the actual culprits, the UGs are trying to suppress the voice of
truth and I would like to appeal them to support us and stop
threatening.” RTI activists in Manipur have charged that a lot of
members in the panchayat have been cheating and siphoning off money from
funds allocated for rural development through the panchayat.
“I have been receiving frequent death threats
from a faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) who are seeking a
cut from the wages of MGNREGS labourers. But the problem is that there
are too many factions of KCP and once I started yielding to the demand
of one faction, persons belonging to other factions of the organisations
are adamant on getting their cuts,” informed a panchayat official from
Imphal East district. Since the implementation of the MGNREGS, there has
been a growing threat and harassment of panchayat officials by rebel
groups. Earlier this year, rebels killed two gram panchayat pradhans and
a relative of a pradhan for ignoring their demands.
With inputs from RK Suresh in Imphal
Ratnadip Choudhury is a Principal Correspondent with Tehelka.
ratnadip@tehelka.com
ratnadip@tehelka.com
Revival of insurgency in Manipur
12 September – A
powerful explosive was found near Manipur Secretariat South Block which
houses the offices of the home minister and the chief secretary.
10 September - An
IED weighing 10kg was recovered less than 100 metres away from Paite
Veng residence of Health Minister Phungzathang Tonsing in Imphal.
9 September – Bomb
explosion at Kangsubi Bridge under Kumbi Police Station in Bishenpur
District killing one Assam Rifles JCO and injuring 6 people.
8 September -
Explosion took place along the Tiddim Road near the Imphal Tulihal
Airport in which one civilian and a jawan of the Sikh Regiment were
injured.
6 September - A
powerful blast took place in the busy streets of Keishampat Junction in
Imphal in which 3 Assam Rifles jawans were seriously injured.
5 September – IED was recovered from the resident of a Pradhan in Nongpok Keithelmanbi
3 September - A 21-year-old was killed in a powerful blast at Nongpok Keithelmanbi in Manipur’s Thoubal district.
24 August – Two
bombs were exploded at Nongren Maning Leikai of Imphal East at the
residences of former Pradhan Leishangthem Tarpon and Loitam Chinglen
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