Manipur police file FIR against Assam Rifles for blocking their search operations

 According to the FIR, the case was registered on August 5 against “personnel of 9th battalion of Assam Rifles” after they stopped the police from “discharging their law bound duty”

The Federal, 8 August, 2023 : Manipur Police has registered an FIR accusing the Assam Rifles of blocking their vehicle after an altercation between the two groups last week.

News reports also said that the police accused the forces of helping out “Kuki militants” to “escape freely to a safe zone” during an ongoing combing operation.

According to the FIR, the case was registered on August 5 against “personnel of 9th battalion of Assam Rifles” after they stopped the police from “discharging their law bound duty”.

Security sources however described the FIR as a travesty of justice and said that the Assam Rifles was undertaking a task given by the command headquarters of ensuring sanctity of the buffer zones between Kuki and Meitiei areas.

The FIR was filed on on August 5 when police alleged that the Assam Rifles blocked police vehicles on the Kwakta Gothol road in Bishnupur district. The FIR claimed the Assam Rifles stopped its personnel from proceeding when the state police was proceeding on Pholjang Road along Kwakta as follow up action to conduct search operations in an arms act case in search of Kuki militants.

The police claimed that its personnel was stopped by 9 Assam Rifles which parked their Casper vehicle blocking the road. Defence sources reacted stating Assam Rifles was undertaking a task given by the command headquarters of ensuring sanctity of the buffer zones between Kuki and Meitiei areas.

Sources in Imphal secretariat said the Army was taking up the issue with the state government strongly at a high level.

Drugs seized

Meanwhile, drugs worth more than ₹1,610 crore have been seized by the Assam Rifles between July 2022 and July this year in Manipur, according to data provided by the paramilitary force.

In the financial years 2021-22 and 2020-21, it seized drugs worth ₹850 crore and ₹1,200 crore, respectively. However, official sources said the Assam Rifles, a border guarding force’s primary mandate or task is not drug law enforcement.

“That is the responsibility of the NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) and the state police. However, the routes, conduits, and funding for terrorism, weapons, and drugs are common at times. Hence, in the process of catching terrorists, the Assam Rifles ends up catching drug smugglers. In all such cases, they are handed over to police,” a source in the security establishment said.

“The deployment posture along the Indo-Myanmar border has been strengthened ever since the crisis began in May. Ethnic violence, while necessitating a focus on hinterland security, has also led to an increase in security forces, which, in some way, would have countered drug trafficking as a second-order effect,” the source said.

Also read: SC announces panel of 3 female ex-HC judges for relief, rehab of Manipur victims

Assam Rifles withdraw from checkpoint

Assam Rifles personnel were withdrawn from a checkpoint in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Monday (August 7) after Meitei women protested against the central paramilitary force, accusing them of brutality.

The Assam Rifles personnel were based at Moirang Lamkhai checkpoint in Bishnupur, where fresh violence erupted last week. They have been withdrawn and substituted by the CRPF and the state police, a notification said.

The notification, issued by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) L Kailun on Monday, said “the checkpoint at Moirang Lamkhai on the Bishnupur-Kangvai road shall be manned by the civil police and 128 Bn CRPF in place of 9 AR with immediate effect and until further orders”.

News agency PTI reported that a response from Assam Rifles was awaited.

Several groups of women in the valley districts launched a demonstration on Monday, demanding the removal of the paramilitary force from the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state. They blocked a road at Hodam Leirak and Kwakeithel in Imphal West district and Angom Leikai and Khurai areas in Imphal East.

In related news, the administrations of Imphal East and West districts increased the curfew relaxation by two hours on Tuesday. The curfew has been relaxed in Imphal East and Imphal West from 5 am to 2 pm, officials said. For Thoubal district, it will be relaxed from 5 am to 4 pm, and for Kakching, it would be from 5 am to 5 pm.

More than 160 people have lost their lives and several hundreds injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a Tribal Solidarity March was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals Nagas and Kukis constitute a little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.

(With agency inputs)