2009 was yet another year when Meitei terrorist groups of Manipur were very active despite the Army and Assam Rifles busting some of their major hideouts. That is so mainly owing to a reportedly long standing nexus between them a number of members of the State government in power.

It is not very often that both the Prime Minister and Home Minister express their alarm over deterioration of security and law and order in States ruled by the political party they represent. However, that is exactly what both Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr P Chidambaram coneyed about Manipur, Assam and Nagaland, in August 2009. On 15 September, Mr Chidambaram was reported to have singled out Manipur as the biggest problem in the North East and a blot on improving its picture.

Calling upon the Chief Ministers of all the North Eastern States to pay particular attention to the implementation of infrastructure projects, Dr Singh also noted a need in the North East for more emphasis on pro-active State police forces rather than exclusive reliance on the Central Para Military Forces and Army. He also urged all North East States to ensure transparency and representation of all groups and communities in recruitment in their police force.

Manipur’s Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh highlighting the “problem of extortion by undergrounds-UGs” in Manipur as one of a serious concern pleaded that it “could not be dealt without the intervention of the Union Home Ministry”, which he said, should give “necessary instruction to the Ministry of Telecommunication for cancellation of pre-paid mobile phone facility”. He also urged for setting up a dedicated security force to prevent extortion activities of UGs along National Highways 39, 53 and 150, which are the lifelines of the people in the State, by making the Highway Patrolling Scheme operational.
 The Prime Minister felt that Manipur Government must put in place appropriate mechanisms for increased participation of people in developmental projects and pointed out that while resources for policing need to be enhanced substantially, the increased posts sanctioned at the police station level remained largely unfilled.

Terrorist related violence in Manipur, which trebled since mid- 2004, steadily increased, shot up further since 2007 and the trend in 2008 indicated an even further acceleration which has been proved by a number of incidents this year. With 388 deaths caused by terrorism in 2007 and 484 in 2008, Manipur remains the most violent in India's troubled Northeast, leaving behind the much larger Assam (384), and Nagaland (201). Manipur, with just 8.52% of the territory and 6.12% of the Northeast’s population accounted for as much as 47% of terrorism related fatalities in the region in 2008.

While as many as 39 ‘underground’ outfits / factions are operating in Manipur, six Meitei based underground outfits banned by MHA since 10 November, 2007, are Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF), People's Liberation Army (PLA), People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and United National Liberation Front (UNLF). While that ban came quite late, the fact that Home Secretary G K Pillai visited Manipur after prolonged public protest following the killing of a suspected militant and a pregnant woman on 23 July, ’09, had long discussions with Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh  and instructed Manipur’s Home Department to do more ‘home work’ on these groups  and other matters indicated that the concern expressed by Prime Minister and Home Minister is being followed up seriously.

The levels of corruption and lawlessness that utter lack of governance of Ibobi’s government has led Manipur to nothing short of anarchy. The UG groups mentioned have ruined the quality of life of a people so rich in culture and sports. Manipur, where Sagol Kangjei became Polo in the 1850s and where there are many potential Olympians, has, as lamented by theatre maestro Ratan Thiyam, no playing fields for  children; instead, they have often been kidnapped or lured -even in the State capital region - by some of these terrorist groups for recruitment.  Many innocent people have been intimidated or killed by terrorists, including UNLF planting Chinese landmines and mass-raping tribal women in Churachandpur. Life changes so drastically after 5.00 p m, when it is already dark, because the sun rises and sets much earlier in India’s North East than in ‘mainland’ India. Far too often Manipur is paralysed by ‘bandhs’. It costs only Rs 3,00,000/ (3 lakhs) to recruit one man into the state police and state-recruited paramilitary forces, so that that these same terrorist outfits with links to Pakistan’s Bangladesh-based Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and also the ruling political party, can penetrate the state’s security apparatus for a pittance. In people’s eyes Ibobi’s government has lost all legitimacy. There are so many more instances of degeneration of the State’s  political, security and administrative systems, which make a mockery of the word ‘anarchy’. For obvious reasons, sources of these inputs are not named.

Following the unprecedented level of protest after Thangjam Manorama’s killing in August 2004, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act  (AFSPA) was lifted from Imphal’s municipal zone of four districts and the Army was withdrawn from it. However, Manipur Police’s special force known  Manipur Police Commandos (MPC- police commandos is a highly misued term as there is no comparison between them and the kind of training and conditioning that army commandos go through), who replaced the Army in these four districts  – Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur - became notorious for extra-judicial killings, particularly, fake encounters. In 2008, there were 27 recorded cases of torture and killing attributed to the MPC. Whereas earlier, they conducted ‘encounters’ in isolated places, they now do so in cities, in broad daylight, as on 23 July, killing Chungkham Sanjit. Photographs of the alleged ‘encounter’ clicked by a local lensman and published in a tabloid clearly reveal that contrary to the official version, Sanjit was standing calmly as the police commandos frisked him, spoke to him,  took him inside the storeroom of the pharmacy, shot him and brought his dead body out.

While New Delhi has taken note and some action on Imphal, much more needs to be done about too much that has happened and is happening there linked to China and Pakistan (through Bangladesh), both of which-as brought out periodically by this author- have India’s North East well within their sights to not only exacerbate existing problems there but also to create as many more as possible.

Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which came to power in Bangladesh with a massive mandate since end of 2008, has indeed made some meaningful moves to make a quantum improvement in its relationship with India. During her recent visit to India, she signed some major treaties involving cooperation against terrorism and exchange of extraditions between the two countries. In view of Ulfa leaders getting chased out of Bangladesh and getting nabbed, Government of India must try for the same for PLA and UNLF groups of Manipur, whose detachments located there have been in contact with Pakistan’s ISI.