Aggressors playing the victim card !
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 21, 2024 -

ATTACKING Borobekra police station in Jiribam district on Saturday, the same day Manipur police celebrated its 133rd raising day, and causing damages to at-least three houses nearby the station underscore that Kuki militants are in no mood to shun violence and accord importance to the centre's efforts to bring representatives of the communities in conflict on the negotiating table to iron out the differences.

The attack also rings out the message that Kuki militants have no shortage of weapons and could target anybody, anywhere; but deepens the suspicion that these perpetrators not only have logistics support of military entities eyeing to avenge loss of its men in ambushes laid by different insurgent groups in Manipur in the course of the decades old insurgency movement but could also be surreptitiously present in the attacks, as majority of the offensives on fringe Meetei village by Kuki militants generally happen either around midnight or after dusk.

Authorities concerned should also take note of the fact that residents of Sejang and neighbouring villages had recently protested deployment of CRPF and Manipur police commandos in the vicinity, whereas the Kuki community had been fiercely opposing centre's decision to pull out some units of a para-military force from Kuki dominated areas.

Interestingly, contrary to Kuki militants launching attacks periodically, Kuki civil societies have been making it a point to demonise the government of Manipur as partisan and communal, vilifying the Meetei community whenever shoot-outs take place in Kuki villages and playing the victim card in case of injuries or casualties on their side.

In Jiribam's context, the border district had remained untouched by the Kuki-Meetei conflict months after the violence broke out in May last.

While slaughtering of a Meetei farmer earlier this year triggered intermittent clashes between armed groups of both communities, the latest attack on Saturday happened after over 20 days of relative calm, thereby implying that other than stringent measures all efforts to pacify the Kuki militants would go in vain.

Moreover, one can't help but strongly suspect that regular use of explosives, flown or fired, by these perpetrators could be due to unseen hands providing training and ensuring endless material supplies, without which it is obvious that Kuki militants won't dare to target Meetei villages, most of which have deployment of state or central forces in the vicinity.

As widely reported, the latest Jiribam attack carried out with automatic weapons and explosives was preceded by a relatively unknown Hmar Village Volunteers on Friday asking Meetei residents in Barak Circle to vacate their homes before sunset and relocate to Jiribam town, underscoring that presence of state and central forces in sensitive locations wouldn't deter armed groups belonging to Kuki or its kindred tribes.

Though no lives were lost in the attack, the Borobekra police station made the target this time should serve as a grim reminder to those helming the affairs in the state and at the centre that all armed groups proactively involved in the conflict should be tackled with an iron hand instead of deputising hapless legislators to work out peace formula.

The central government, in particular, cannot brush aside the fact Kuki militants would be scheming socio-ethnic and political problems to justify the demand raised by Kuki legislators and civil bodies for separate administration or union territory with legislature, for now; but ultimately materialisation of the goal for creation of Kuki homeland.