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Anil Bhat
The slew of long overdue post-26/11 measures announced by the recently appointed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram must extend to Manipur as well, where violence in many parts by many terrorist groups throughout 2008 has continued over the new year. Incidentally, Manipur, along with Assam, got included in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) eastern operations at the same time in 1993 as Mumbai did in its western grid.
In a pre-dawn operation on December 30, 2008, troops of 57 Mountain Division and Bishenpur Police destroyed a large, well-concealed and inaccessible hideout of six huts in the Loktak lake’s marshy area of Tharo Pat of KYKL for the second time within a span of few weeks. Two AK-56 Rifles, 12 AK magazines, assorted ammunition, UBGL grenades, 15 anti-personnel mines (including Chinese-manufactured ones), eight sets of combat uniform, one television, one generator, six gas cylinders, IEDs and explosives, propaganda material, including pamphlets and CDs, other warlike stores and three country boats held by the Kangla Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) were recovered.
The height of all huts was only about 41 feet, thereby concealing their location from even hundred yards due to the tall phumdis. Only one narrow water channel led to the hideout which was guarded round the clock. Vital inputs about this hideout were willingly provided by local villagers who were fed up with the extortion demands and misbehaviour of the terrorists.
On January 4, six persons were injured when police resorted to firing tear gas and a mock bomb to disperse a menacing crowd of about 100 men who had stormed the Irilbung police station demanding action against the killing of a 14-year-old boy, Md Wahidur Rehman, of Keirao Litan Makhong on January 2. The police had to resort to violent crowd dispersal measures when they were unable to pacify the irate slogan-shouting mob who demanded that the government produce the murderer without further delay. In the reprisal, six people were hit by either tear gas shells or mock bombs. The injured were Md Jaheer of Urup Awang Leikai, Jumma Khan of Keirao, Nurbanu of Keirao Litan Makhong, Nungshirei of Keirao Awang Leikai, Nganbi of Urup Makha Leikai and Razia of Keirao Mayai Leikai.
A member of the Joint Action Committee formed after the boy’s killing, W Hasan, said that locals were furious for they had been promised by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh when they met him on January 2, that the culprit would be produced within 24 hours, and after two days, the government remained mum. He said that since the government continued to remain inactive and unconcerned in the matter of the killing of the innocent boy, they would launch an agitation in all Muslim-inhabited areas of the State and that untoward incidents that might occur during the agitation would be the sole responsibility of the government.
It may be recalled that for the first time, a communal clash between the dominant Meiteis and the Pangals (Muslims) on May 3, 1993 over monetary transaction in the Lilong Bazaar area of Thoubal district led to approximately 150 deaths in Thoubal and Imphal districts of Manipur. Subsequently, discontented members of the minority Muslim community formed a number of Islamic militant outfits. The People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) was one of them. Besides seeking to safeguard the interests of the minority Muslim community in Manipur, PULF’s purported objective is to secure an Islamic country in India’s Northeast through an armed struggle, in collaboration with other Islamic fundamentalist groups. The outfit which envisions a society based on ‘‘Islamic values’’ has acted against the prevalence of substance abuse and alcoholism among Muslims and also passed diktats on the dress code for Muslim girls in Manipur.
The clash mentioned had occurred shortly after the Bangladesh-based ISI’s entry into India’s northeastern region, including Assam, thanks to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), whose top leadership escaped to Dhaka in November-December 1990. The December 1992 communal disturbance in Assam and the May 1993 Lilong incident in Manipur were both the first ones engineered by ISI as part of its eastern operations plan. Some time later, Manipur’s Meitei outfits — which earlier had links with China and Myanmar — too became part of the ISI’s eastern network.
PULF has been spreading its terror to other parts of Northeast at the behest of ISI and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI), which became evident from the arrest of 10 PULF operatives, four in Guwahati (most wanted by the Army in Manipur) and six from a Mysore hotel in Karnataka in April 2008. All the PULF members arrested hail from Manipur and were identified as Zakharia Khan of Kakching in Thoubal district, Altaf of Chanan village and Firoze Khan of Bishenpur district. Based on their confessional statement during interrogation, the police managed to arrest the most wanted militant leader, Umar Farooq from Pathar Quary, Guwahati. On July 22, 1999, four PULF militants were arrested from Barpeta.
On January this year, in a well-planned operation, a joint team of Imphal-based Army officials, Bishenpur Police and the Special Branch of Delhi Police arrested top leaders of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). Hard intelligence was provided by 57 Mountain Division of the Army about the presence of top leaders of KCP (Mangang) and KCP (Lamphel) factions at New Delhi. The outfit and the arrested militants are responsible for several killings, bombings, kidnappings and extortion in Manipur.
All the lies and U-turns by the Pakistani government cannot hide a whole lot of pan-India activities of its dirty tricks department and its jihadi outfits, which have consistently been hyperactive — networking, outsourcing, buying off or coercing various groups in India . They have succeeded so far only because India has specialized in being a soft state. Will that change now?
(The writer is a security analyst based in Delhi. He spent a part of his career in the Northeast)
sourcE: the sentinel assam
Anil Bhat
The slew of long overdue post-26/11 measures announced by the recently appointed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram must extend to Manipur as well, where violence in many parts by many terrorist groups throughout 2008 has continued over the new year. Incidentally, Manipur, along with Assam, got included in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) eastern operations at the same time in 1993 as Mumbai did in its western grid.
In a pre-dawn operation on December 30, 2008, troops of 57 Mountain Division and Bishenpur Police destroyed a large, well-concealed and inaccessible hideout of six huts in the Loktak lake’s marshy area of Tharo Pat of KYKL for the second time within a span of few weeks. Two AK-56 Rifles, 12 AK magazines, assorted ammunition, UBGL grenades, 15 anti-personnel mines (including Chinese-manufactured ones), eight sets of combat uniform, one television, one generator, six gas cylinders, IEDs and explosives, propaganda material, including pamphlets and CDs, other warlike stores and three country boats held by the Kangla Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) were recovered.
The height of all huts was only about 41 feet, thereby concealing their location from even hundred yards due to the tall phumdis. Only one narrow water channel led to the hideout which was guarded round the clock. Vital inputs about this hideout were willingly provided by local villagers who were fed up with the extortion demands and misbehaviour of the terrorists.
On January 4, six persons were injured when police resorted to firing tear gas and a mock bomb to disperse a menacing crowd of about 100 men who had stormed the Irilbung police station demanding action against the killing of a 14-year-old boy, Md Wahidur Rehman, of Keirao Litan Makhong on January 2. The police had to resort to violent crowd dispersal measures when they were unable to pacify the irate slogan-shouting mob who demanded that the government produce the murderer without further delay. In the reprisal, six people were hit by either tear gas shells or mock bombs. The injured were Md Jaheer of Urup Awang Leikai, Jumma Khan of Keirao, Nurbanu of Keirao Litan Makhong, Nungshirei of Keirao Awang Leikai, Nganbi of Urup Makha Leikai and Razia of Keirao Mayai Leikai.
A member of the Joint Action Committee formed after the boy’s killing, W Hasan, said that locals were furious for they had been promised by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh when they met him on January 2, that the culprit would be produced within 24 hours, and after two days, the government remained mum. He said that since the government continued to remain inactive and unconcerned in the matter of the killing of the innocent boy, they would launch an agitation in all Muslim-inhabited areas of the State and that untoward incidents that might occur during the agitation would be the sole responsibility of the government.
It may be recalled that for the first time, a communal clash between the dominant Meiteis and the Pangals (Muslims) on May 3, 1993 over monetary transaction in the Lilong Bazaar area of Thoubal district led to approximately 150 deaths in Thoubal and Imphal districts of Manipur. Subsequently, discontented members of the minority Muslim community formed a number of Islamic militant outfits. The People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) was one of them. Besides seeking to safeguard the interests of the minority Muslim community in Manipur, PULF’s purported objective is to secure an Islamic country in India’s Northeast through an armed struggle, in collaboration with other Islamic fundamentalist groups. The outfit which envisions a society based on ‘‘Islamic values’’ has acted against the prevalence of substance abuse and alcoholism among Muslims and also passed diktats on the dress code for Muslim girls in Manipur.
The clash mentioned had occurred shortly after the Bangladesh-based ISI’s entry into India’s northeastern region, including Assam, thanks to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), whose top leadership escaped to Dhaka in November-December 1990. The December 1992 communal disturbance in Assam and the May 1993 Lilong incident in Manipur were both the first ones engineered by ISI as part of its eastern operations plan. Some time later, Manipur’s Meitei outfits — which earlier had links with China and Myanmar — too became part of the ISI’s eastern network.
PULF has been spreading its terror to other parts of Northeast at the behest of ISI and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI), which became evident from the arrest of 10 PULF operatives, four in Guwahati (most wanted by the Army in Manipur) and six from a Mysore hotel in Karnataka in April 2008. All the PULF members arrested hail from Manipur and were identified as Zakharia Khan of Kakching in Thoubal district, Altaf of Chanan village and Firoze Khan of Bishenpur district. Based on their confessional statement during interrogation, the police managed to arrest the most wanted militant leader, Umar Farooq from Pathar Quary, Guwahati. On July 22, 1999, four PULF militants were arrested from Barpeta.
On January this year, in a well-planned operation, a joint team of Imphal-based Army officials, Bishenpur Police and the Special Branch of Delhi Police arrested top leaders of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). Hard intelligence was provided by 57 Mountain Division of the Army about the presence of top leaders of KCP (Mangang) and KCP (Lamphel) factions at New Delhi. The outfit and the arrested militants are responsible for several killings, bombings, kidnappings and extortion in Manipur.
All the lies and U-turns by the Pakistani government cannot hide a whole lot of pan-India activities of its dirty tricks department and its jihadi outfits, which have consistently been hyperactive — networking, outsourcing, buying off or coercing various groups in India . They have succeeded so far only because India has specialized in being a soft state. Will that change now?
(The writer is a security analyst based in Delhi. He spent a part of his career in the Northeast)
sourcE: the sentinel assam
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