Security forces as peace emissaries amid unceasing firing
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 21, 2023 -

FIRING incidents occurring intermittently in the peripheral villages whenever there is faint semblance of improvement in the situation indicate that simply persisting with peace and harmony calls by sane civil societies and individuals or security forces emphasising on confidence building measures alone wouldn’t be of much help.

With many a precious lives already lost and strong possibility of increase in the body count not to mention about thousands of families rendered homeless in pursuit of a community’s homeland agenda, it seems that restoration of peace in the state will depend on the security forces launching effective crackdown against the perpetrators.

As the very purpose of rushing in thousands of additional central forces since the first week of May is to safeguard the lives and properties of the civilian population, there is no valid reason for the security forces to exercise leniency when armed attacks are carried out in their presence.

For instance, the firing incident at Kanta Sabal and torching of houses at the nearby Leimakhong Chingmang village on June 18 night and in the wee hours the following day ring out the message that the perpetrators are in no mood to cease violence.

By now security forces should also be well aware about which group of people embroiled in the ethnic violence is adopting hostile posture.

If reports are to be believed, the army authorities operating from the Leimakhong garrison had been conducting peace meetings with all the local communities and cautioning that the aggressive party shall have to face the consequences, but with little difference at the ground level.

While it is understandable that security forces wouldn’t pull the trigger either against the unarmed civilian protesters or on the armed perpetrators sans directive from the ministry concerned, the latest incidents signify that the attackers involved are taking advantage of the centre’s indecision.

Nevertheless, in case the union government continues to drag its feet rather than taking swift action to effectively end the turmoil then it’s obvious that the violence will no more be limited to only the two communities but also drag in other minority groups who had been maintaining neutrality so far.

Amid the endless cycle of violence there have been reports about armed persons intimidating the neutral communities, which if not stopped has the potential to deepen the crisis.

Subsequent to a house ‘marked’ Naga torched by suspected Kuki militants at the mixed populated Leimakhong Chingmang on the intervening night of June 18 and 19, the Liangmai Naga Council, Eastern Zone has strongly condemned the act and claimed that the Naga house was intentionally targeted.

While the Liangmai council cautioned that they will not remain silent, the disturbing aspect of the Leimakhong Chingmang skirmish is that similar incidents had happened thrice earlier in the same area which probably has largest concentration of the Indian army in Manipur.

No doubt, the security forces fired shots and managed to bring the situation under control, but there is no guarantee that such incidents wouldn’t recur if the security forces continue to act as peace emissaries when bullets continue to fly thick and fast within their area of operational command.