The Paraolon ambush aftermath : Walking out of a truce pact
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 25 2015 -

The casualty was heavy. 18 soldiers killed and at least 11 others injured.

Not the first time that security personnel had come under attack and most probably it will not be the last either.

Manipur and other States of the North East region have seen such attacks before but what marks the Paraolon ambush of June 4 was the manner in which the Khaplang faction of the NSCN was able to take part in such a deadly ambush barely three months after calling off the truce pact with the Government of India.

Walking out of the truce pact that held out for about 14 years.

What went wrong ?

A question which the Government of India must have started studying and most probably have, if the report that the Prime Minister has started posing questions to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, is anything to go by.

Moreover Delhi also need to question and ask itself why the peace deal inked with the Khaplang faction in 2001 dragged on till the early part of 2015 with no political dialogue.

Was the ceasefire agreement worked out just so that there are no more confrontations with no eye on chalking out a settlement ?

Or is the Government of India under the impression that a deal with the IM faction of the NSCN is all that is needed for peace to prevail in Nagaland and elsewhere ?

If this was the mindset then it was probably misplaced, for remember before the Paraolon ambush on June 4, there were a number of attacks launched by the NSCN (K) against the security personnel in different parts of the North East.

A more than ample demonstration that during the peace pact, which stretched from 2001 to the early part of 2015, the Khaplang faction of the NSCN had not been lying idle.

The same may be said of the other armed groups with which the Government of India is currently in peace deals.

The strike power of the NSCN (K) and others with which the armed outfit has struck up alliances is clear.

It takes more than gun power to execute such a clinical ambush as the June 4 attack at Paraolon.

The figure of 18 dead is also clear. What happened after that is however not so clear.

Just a few days after the Paraolon ambush came news or reports from New Delhi on how an elite group of Army men had gone on the offensive and attacked a number of militant camps along the Indo-Myanmar border with some even venturing into the territory of Myanmar.

The figures of the underground cadres killed in the offensives were also vague.

The casualty figure ranged from 15 to 100 and more and it was this that created more confusion.

The security personnel obviously did not have any bodies or arms to demonstrate before the media.

What is more, some of the news that made it to the media were leaked and newspapers as well as TV channels had to rely on their own sources to get the much needed information.

Even now, that is three weeks after the Paraolon ambush, there is as yet nothing much to show by way of solid proof.

As for the media in Manipur, the place where the Paraolon ambush took place, they have been left out in the cold.

The wisdom of leaving out the media in Manipur in the cold has been already been raised here and it is up to the Government of India to dwell over this poser.