E-Paper
Manipur violence: Assailants using forces' uniform poses new challenge
An Indian Army official aware of developments in Manipur said, “It is true that assailants have started misusing uniforms of police and security forces.”
On Tuesday, three unarmed tribal villagers, all Kukis were travelling from Kanchup Ponlen village in Manipur’s Senapati district to the headquarters of the neighbouring Kangpokpi district for medical treatment. At 6:30 am, on a dirt road between Ireng and Kharam villages, they were shot dead. The three deaths were not unusual in a state in the throes of ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis that has lasted more than five months, with around 175 people having been killed. But hours after the killings, one photograph from the site of the killing shone light on a pattern that has complicated the situation even further -- assailants using Manipur police commando fatigues.
Read here: Manipur violence: Meitei group meets Rajnath Singh over removal of Assam Rifles
The photo has a timestamp of 6:54 am, prior to the local police being aware of the incident, police officials confirmed to HT. Except one man in the photograph with a rifle in hand, is in black Manipur police commando fatigues. Witnesses later told security agencies that several assailants were dressed in the attire that carried out the attack.
A senior Kangpokpi police official said that preliminary investigations suggest that there were nine miscreants that were dressed in the commando outfits. “Even we were surprised when we saw that photo. It was clearly taken by someone who was present at the scene of the crime when it took place or immediately after it. The person in the photo with the rifle was clearly wearing a police commando outfit,” added this person, who asked not to be named.
The incident reiterated a growing problem for security agencies in the volatile state. The assailants in this case snuck into designated buffer zones between Meitei and Kuki dominated areas, and were undetected because of the uniforms they were wearing.
Earlier, on September 8, dozens of armed miscreants wearing black commando outfits were among those in a large mob that fired at villagers in Pallel in Tenugoupal district bordering Kakching, officials said. Three people were killed and over 50 others including an Indian Army Major were injured.
An Indian Army official aware of developments in Manipur said, “It is true that assailants have started misusing uniforms of police and security forces. The incidents at Pallel and Kangpokpi this month are examples of that.”
Senior security officials said that one of the key motifs of the violence that have plagued Manipur for the pastfive months is attacks on state armories and police stations by large mobs that have seen the large scale looting of arms and ammunition. Government data shows that at least 5668 arms have gone missing, of which 1329 have been recovered thus far. What is less spoken about, and difficult to quantify, security officials said, is the number of police uniforms that have gone missing.
“There have been instances when mobs took away police uniforms from police stations along with arms and ammunition. Such cases are few. We don’t have details of how many uniforms were taken away from our area,” said a senior police officer based in Imphal.
Army officials added that procuring these uniforms is not difficult. “It is possible that they may have been purchased as well,” the army official cited above said.
In July, the Manipur police circulated instructions to all its units to ensure that the black Manipur Police Commando uniform was not misused, after reports suggested that armed rioters were wearing them to create mistrust, official said. “It’s a very worrying trend for us. When we see someone in uniform, even we tend to assume that they are either from the police or the security forces. It appears that the miscreants are using these uniforms to avoid scrutiny by security forces and police and carry out attacks on civilians,” said police officer cited in the first instance.
Even this, like everything else in Manipur, has become a fracture between the Meiteis and the tribal Kukis. “Earlier Meiteis used to come in mobs and the attacks didn’t appear professional. But now, the attacks on Kukis are being carried out by people using sophisticated weapons like AK-series assault rifles,” said Ginza Vualzong, spokesperson of Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a Kuki organisation.
Read here: Manipur violence: Witnesses in 27 cases to be examined physically, says Supreme Court
“Videos of pictures of the attacks, circulating on social media, show they are wearing army and police uniforms used to camouflage themselves. It’s very difficult to identify the real commando from someone pretending to be one,” he added. Meitei groups, however, dismiss the allegations. “There’s no way for us to confirm the claims Kuki groups are making. If they think militants based in Imphal Valley are wearing police and army outfits and attacking them, they should provide proof of that and approach the authorities with their complaints,” said Khuraijam Athouba, spokesperson of Coordination Committee for Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an Imphal Valley organisation of Meitei groups.
