Emerging pattern behind fresh offensives : Since evening of November 7
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 12, 2024 -

The design behind the series of renewed offensives in the last few days should be clear by following the thread from the evening of November 7 when heavily armed Kuki militants attacked Mongbung village in Jiribam district at about 8.30 pm.

The Sangai Express carried a very brief report on the Jiribam offensive with the addition that the attack came from the side of Jarolpokpi, a Hmar village.

At the time, that is late in the night of November 7 when The Sangai Express had to wind up for the day and send the reports of the day to the printing press, the fighting was still on.

Just one day after the November 7 attack the retaliation came with all its ferocity wherein six houses were torched at Zairon Hmar village in Jiribam district and one woman was killed.

The theatre of conflict then shifted to Bishnupur district when one Meitei woman farmer was shot dead while working in a paddy field at Wathalambi Loukol in Bishnupur district on November 8.

In just 24 hours the theatre of ‘war’ shifted from Jiribam to Bishnupur and this was topped off by the series of attacks launched on Meitei settlements at Saiton in Bishnupur district, Imphal East district under Yaingangpokpi police station and Jiribam again.

This was on November 10. Then on November 11, Manipur woke up to the news of a farmer being shot when Kuki militants rained bullets while working at a paddy field at Shanti Khongbal near Yaingangpokpi.

Incidentally the injured farmer is not a Meitei but a Tangkhul, a community which has remained neutral in the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis since May 3, 2023.

And if Manipur woke up to the news of Kuki militants raining bullets on a group of people working in the paddy field at Shanti Khongbal, this was rounded off by information coming in that at least 10 Kuki militants have been shot dead by CRPF personnel at Jiribam.

There are also reports that many others have been injured in the shoot out between the Kuki militants and the CRPF personnel.

So in a span of five days, 12 people, including the 10 Kuki militants have been killed in renewed clash while scores of others have been injured and one can certainly see a pattern emerging out of the series of attacks launched by the Kuki militants in the last five days.

Logic says and this is sound logic - this is the ideal time to launch offensives against the Meiteis as the harvest season is on and unarmed farmers would be the best and softest target.

To trigger the spate of renewed offensives, the formula was simple enough.

Attack a village, which happened to be a place at Jiribam district and then activate the cadres placed in other places such as at Bishnupur and at Imphal East near Yaingangpokpi.

The attack that unfortunately killed a woman at Zairon Hmar village on November was a retaliatory offensive launched against the attack at Mongbung the earlier night, that is on November 7 evening.

In all these instances of offensives launched by the Kuki militants from the hill sides, accusations against the Central forces have been flying thick and fast.

In the first instance at Wathalambi Loukol in Bishnupur district on November 9, the BSF has been accused of remaining a mute spectator despite the presence of a company stationed at Wathalambi Primary School.

It is the same with the other Central forces, an accusation which has stuck since violence erupted in all its ugliness on May 3, 2023 and which has been given credence by the run ins reported between Central forces and State police commandos on more than one occasion.

The politics at work here cannot be more ugly than this and as The Sangai Express has been repeatedly pointing out, Union Home Minister Amit Shah did take note of the arms looted from the police armouries but never has once Delhi deemed it fit to openly question from where the guns used by the Kuki militants have come.

Maybe it is a reflection of this observation that one sees in the refusal of the Central forces to act when the Meitei settlements come under heavy attack from the well armed Kuki militants.