A group of young men poured petrol on their heads and threatened to set themselves on fire in Manipur’s capital Imphal over the arrest of a key leader of the Arambai Tenggol (AT), a volunteer group of the Meitei community which faces allegations of participating in the Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes.
Protests broke out on Saturday night in Imphal after the security forces arrested AT leader, Kanan Singh. The protesters burnt tyres on the road and blocked roads. Some Imphal residents also reported hearing the sound of gunfire.
In visuals of the protest, a group of young men in black t-shirts were seen holding bottles with petrol in them. One of them was heard saying, “We have given up arms. We have done what you’re supposed to do during the floods. Now you’re arresting us. We will kill ourselves.”
Kanan Singh is the main suspect in the attack on the house of Additional Superintendent of Police Moirangthem Amit and the subsequent kidnapping of the senior police officer in February 2024. The same month, he served as a head constable attached to a commando unit of the state police before the force suspended him over “dereliction of duty”.
Thereafter, Kanan Singh joined the AT.
A curfew has been imposed and internet has been snapped for five days in five districts – Bishnupur, Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal, and Kakching.
The protesters referred to the AT handing over firearms on the assurance of security guarantee of Meitei villages in the foothills in February after Manipur Governor AK Bhalla, under the President’s rule, ordered everyone in the border state to hand over illegally held and looted firearms. AT members were also seen in flood relief work in recent days in Manipur’s valley areas.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is looking into several cases in Manipur, including against AT chief Korounganba Khuman.
Protests In Moreh
The fresh protests in Imphal come amid a mass agitation by the Kuki tribes over the arrest of a suspected insurgent leader from their community from the border town Moreh for allegedly killing a Manipur Police officer with a sniper rifle in October 2023.
The accused, Kamgingthang Gangte, is allegedly a leader of the insurgent group Kuki National Army (KNA) which signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the state government. The KNA and other SoO agreement signatories face allegations of ground rules violation.
“It is a matter of deep concern that so-called civil society groups are protesting against the arrest of a militant, who is under the SoO agreement, and allegedly linked to the murder of a police officer on duty,” a spokesperson of the civil group Meitei Heritage Society told reporters.
“Facing Resistance During Arrests”
Police sources said that with the state deeply divided on ethnic lines, investigators face resistance from both communities whenever they move in to arrest suspects as part of the formal process.
The AT maintains it is a cultural organisation that was compelled to take up arms as “village volunteers” due to ineffective law enforcement in the early days of the ethnic violence in May 2023; it says lack of law enforcement led to Meitei villages in the foothills coming under attacks from Kuki militants.
The Kuki tribes have alleged the AT is a “radical Meitei militia” that have been attacking Kuki villages. Kuki civil society groups have also alleged the AT launched attacks on their villages along the inter-district borders after the first wave of clashes in May 2023, which forced the Kuki tribes to take up arms and form “village volunteers”. Many AT members have been named in cases of police armoury lootings.
While both sides call their armed individuals “volunteers”, a similar feature is the weapons they use – AK and M series assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, crude and military grade mortars, high-end sniper rifles, surveillance drones, etc.
Banned Meitei militant groups such as the PLA, KYKL and KCP that had become nearly extinct in Manipur for the last 10 years also returned from Myanmar after May 2023 and due to the junta’s diminishing hold in areas where the few remaining Meitei militants camped.
The United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF (P), is the only Meitei militant group that signed a SoO-like ceasefire with the Centre and the state government.
The Kuki, Zomi and Hmar tribes have nearly two dozen insurgent groups that come under two umbrella organisations called the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF). The KNO and UPF have signed the SoO agreement whose terms include the insurgents staying at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly. Many of them face allegations of taking part in the Manipur violence.
The Manipur violence has claimed over 260 lives and displaced nearly 50,000 people.
