The burning question
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: January 06, 2024 -

The incident of fire that gutted at least three abandoned houses at New Lambulane locality of New Checkon area in Imphal East district on Thursday night has once again raised some serious questions that the state government and the central security personnel deployed in the area round the clock need to answer, howsoever, uncomfortable it may be.

This is not the first time that such acts of arson on abandoned houses have taken place in the highly sensitive security zone which has been kept barricaded and sealed with heavy deployment of central paramilitary personnel since the outbreak of the ethnic violence between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin people in the strife-torn northeastern India state of Manipur on May 3 last.

There have been at least three such incidents of arson in the area in the past.

The first incident took place on May 22 when a mob allegedly torched two houses after two armed miscreants forced people to shut their shops in the area.

In the second incident, at least five houses belonging to Kuki-Chin and Meitei/Meetei communities were reduced to ashes on August 27 last.

Three of the ill-fated houses belonged to people of Kuki-Chin community while the owners of the other houses were said to be Meitei/Meetei.

In between these two incidents, a locked house at New Lambulane was also burnt down on june 15 allegedly by one Edward Haokip (53) of the same locality and he was arrested along with a single barrel gun by the police on the same day.

Being a mixed-population locality, housing people of various communities including top bureaucrats, police officer's and officials on central government services, New Lambulane and its surrounding areas have been always been on the alert list of the security forces.

However, recurrence of arson incidents in these areas despite heavy deployment of armed personnel of central paramilitary forces round the clock has become a cause of concern for the crisis-hit people, who are yearning for the return of peace and normalcy in Manipur.

Like in most incidents of arson that took place in New Lambulane and its surrounding areas in the past, the law enforcement agencies have not been able to pin-point the cause of the fire in the present instance as well.

To say or assume that the fire in the abandoned houses broke out due to faulty electric short circuit would be a fallacy.

No abandoned house would have electrical switches or appliances on that could cause sparks to ignite fire.

So, someone must have to go inside these abandoned houses to light the fire.

But the million-dollar question is how anyone could enter this sealed and fenced security zone without being detected by the security personnel, who are being deployed around the clock.

There was one incident in the past when three personnel of Rapid Action Force were arrested for their alleged involvement in an attempt to set fire to a local shop owned by a Naga tribal businessman in New Checkon area in last part of May, 2023.

The three RAF personnel identified as Somdev Arya, Kuldeep Singh and Pradeep Kumar were subsequently placed under suspension and an enquiry instituted to probe into their conduct following intervention by the Home Ministry.

The breakthrough in the case was possible after the misconduct of the three RAF personnel were caught on CCTV camera installed in the area.

By recalling this incident, we are in no way indicating that the personnel of central paramilitary forces deployed in the area round the clock are involved in the present case as well even if the public are pointing their fingers of suspicion to that direction.

So, to allay the suspicion of the ethnic crisis hit people, the government and its related authorities need to find out how the so-called airtight security measures in New Lambulane and its surrounding areas could be breached by anyone despite the presence of heavy central paramilitary forces.