Killings in Manipur are continuing with the ethnic strife spreading beyond the Meitei and Kuki Zo. Three Kuki-Zo youths were shot dead on September 12, followed by a tribal police inspector on duty on September 13. On September 16, an Indian Army soldier on leave, Sertho Thangthang Kom, was abducted at gunpoint from his home in Tarung in Imphal West district. The next day his bullet-ridden body was found, apparently the handiwork of Meitei terrorists. This was the first killing of a Kom tribal. The Kom have been living peacefully with the Nagas in Manipur. 

Political skullduggery is continuing in Manipur. Myanmar-based KYKL terrorists in all probability have joined forces with their Meitei brethren in the Imphal Valley. The latter are armed with thousands of so-called looted weapons from armouries, which according to ground sources were "distributed", not looted. Without the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Army/Assam Rifles are powerless in Imphal Valley, leaving the Manipur Police free to carry out ethnic cleansing of Kuk-Zo and now the Kom as well. 

Terrorists in police uniform have been sneaking into the hill areas of Manipur, through buffer zones manned by the Assam Rifles, to kill Kuki-Zo tribals. Most likely these are police commandos operating directly under the state leadership. If this was not enough, the Assam Rifles have written to Manipur Police that some of the Meitei had acquired old Tatra trucks and painted them in the same colour with the same insignia of the Assam Rifles.

The rise of private militia 

With sightings of such vehicles in the Kakching area of Manipur, Assam Rifles has demanded swift action to avoid any adverse action. However, none of these vehicles have been seized yet although the Manipur Police and Central Armed Police Forces deployed in Manipur have access to drones. This could be by design under political directions.   

With Army/Assam Rifles lookalike vehicles, terrorists may be planning to ease through the buffer zones or get close to Army/Assam Rifles posts for surprise attacks. One thing that appears certain is that Manipur is the vanguard for establishing private militia in India. The next step could be arming them with heavy weapons.     

Over 175 persons have been killed in the violence in Manipur so far and over 50,000 displaced. The Kuki-Zo were told earlier to bury their dead “elsewhere”. Now the Supreme Court has ruled that unclaimed bodies of the tribals should be disposed of if no kin come to claim them. But how can the families of the dead Kuki-Zo come to collect the bodies when the moment they step into Imphal Valley they will all be shot dead?  

There have been massive protests by thousands in the Imphal Valley when the four Meitei accused responsible for parading Kuki-Zo women naked and assaulting them were remanded to police custody in Imphal. Fresh protests broke out with photos of the two missing Meitei students on social media after the internet ban was lifted on September 23. The photos taken on July 8, two days after the students went missing, show the de-capacitated bodies of the boy and the girl students. The internet has been banned again and all schools have been closed. The circle of violence is unlikely to end.

The China, Pakistan nexus

China has been supporting, training and arming northeast terrorists for the past several decades. In 2015, Chinese intelligence formed the United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFW) bringing together separatist groups in India, like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB). The UNLFW had claimed responsibility for the deadliest ambush in Manipur in 2015, in which 18 army soldiers were killed. The KYKL is an offshoot of the UNLFW. The ongoing political experiment of ethnic cleansing and polarization in Manipur would naturally be exploited by China.

Pakistan, a strong supporter of Sikh separatism, allowed Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) to establish an office in Karachi and aligned the SFJ with Chinese intelligence. China is now aligning Khalistanis with Kuki extremists, while Ataullah abu Ammar Junun, chief of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in Myanmar, is a Pakistani national linked to Pakistan’s ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). 

A video has recently emerged of Leanne Gangte, heading the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA), speaking at the gurudwara in Surrey, Canada. Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, for whose killing Canada is blaming India, was head of the same gurudwara before he was killed. Gangte is an ethnic tribe of Kuki-Zo who primarily live in Manipur's southern Churachandpur district and neighbouring states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam. They also live in Chin State and Kabaw Valley of Myanmar.

A post on X calling NAMTA a “Kuki-separatist organization”  appears pretty much immature. (https://twitter.com/_peacekeeper2/status/1705174413795295590). At the same time, it must be noted that NAMTA was formed on May 9, 2023 after Manipur exploded in violence and ethnic cleansing of the Kuk-Zo began. Hence, Leanne Gangte speaking in the Surrey gurudwara could be a way to establish ties with the Khalistanis. This provides China with another opportunity to exploit the unstable situation in Manipur in conjunction with Khalistanis, NAMTA and Pakistan.

Miffed with the Delhi Declaration at the G20 Summit not accusing Russia of the war in Ukraine, the US-led West would be happy with the above development. The US and the West have been going soft on Pakistan for its proxy war on India and now 21 British MPs have signed a motion tabled in the House of Commons calling on the UK government to raise the issue of human rights violations in Manipur and halt talks on FTA with India.

(The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views are personal)