Assam Rifles and a tale of two contrary protests in Manipur

Inside the battalion headquarters of the 22 Assam Rifles(AR) in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, the soldiers have started their preparations to vacate the camp. On September 20, they will be replaced by CRPF personnel. The Centre has ordered the transfer of 22 AR and 9 AR battalions from Manipur because of the rising terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir(J&K). The two battalions, approximately 2,500 men, are currently posted in Kangpokpi and Churachandpur – hill districts where Kukis live. Many AR soldiers here are excited for the counter terrors ops ahead because this is a challenge they have been trained for.
But there is a problem.
Outside the gates of the 22 AR battalion, about 80 Kuki women are on a sit-in protest against the Centre’s decision. In the run up to September 20, the numbers will increase. Every house has proposed to send one of its female members to stand guard. The women from the influential civil society COTU(Committee on Tribal Unity) have announced they will block the gate and not allow the soldiers to leave the district. They believe Assam Rifles is the only force that can save them from Meitei militants. .
Roughly 45-km away, hundreds of students assisted by elderly Meitei women have blocked the Indo-Myanmar road in Imphal’s Kakwa Bazar. They too are on a sit-in protest. They too have their demands. One of them involves the Assam Rifles. They want the force to be removed from Manipur. They believe violence is continuing because the force is biased and not acting against Kuki militants. An interview by the recently retired chief of Assam Rifles, in which he rejected Manipur police’s claims about Kuki militants using drones to drop explosives at a Meitei village on September 1, has only riled the protesters.
Indira P Devi(32), who is part of the protest said, “Assam Rifles has always been biased. If you look at the history of Manipur, they have always committed atrocities on Meiteis. This is the reason why the draconian AFSPA(Armed Forces Special Powers Act) was removed from the valley’s areas.”
The 9 AR battalion convoy from Churachandpur left on Friday morning. CRPF has taken over the camp. 22 AR at Kangpokpi will leave on September 20.
Manipur has been roiled by ethnic violence since last May. What started as a tribal protest (led by the Kukis) against a court decision (that has since been stayed) on tribal status for the Meiteis, soon became a full-blown ethnic conflict between the two groups. The Biren Singh-led state government’s pro-Meitei stance did not help. With a vertical split in the police force and the bureaucracy, it is believed that only the presence of AR, and the fact that the security forces are under the command of a special advisor and not the chief minister, has saved the day. To be sure, at least 230 people killed in the violence which has seen a spurt over the past week with the use of sophisticated weaponry. This has also coincided with Singh raising the pitch on his demand that the combined command (the security forces) report to him.
On July 12, 2004, 12 Meitei women stripped in front of Imphal’s Kangla Fort, the then headquarters of the Assam Rifles headquarters to protest the rape and murder of a 32 year old Meitei woman , allegedly by the soldiers. The woman’s body was found in a field near her house with bullet wounds.
“We have a chequered history with the force. One should never forget that our Meitei women were forced to strip in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters to expose their wrongdoing in front of the world. They have conducted fake encounters in the valley where Meiteis live but do not show the same level of strictness towards the Kukis,” Devi said.
In parts of Imphal and other districts in the valley, Meira Paibis, — groups of Meitei women present in every village across the state — have started to take out candlelight marches against the former Assam Rifles chief’s statement with fresh demands for the removal of Assam Rifles from Manipur.
At various points on the highway leading to the Kangpokpi market, groups of Kuki women sit together on the roadside. They say they are on guard duty and need to keep an eye on the movement of CRPF convoys entering the market. Shifting over 1250 CRPF men(one battalion) along with the camp infrastructure, weapons, vehicles, will take days. The Kuki women have decided to stop the CRPF convoy from entering the market and moving towards the 22 AR battalion camp.
Lidia Lamngaiching(21), one of the Kuki women sitting at the gate, said, “On May 3 last year, when ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur, it was the Assam Rifles, that saved thousands from being killed. When Kukis and Meiteis were burning each other’s houses across Manipur, it was this force that rescued Meiteis from hill districts and Kukis from the valley. My aunt and her two daughters were rescued by Assam Rifles from Imphal, saved from murderous mobs along the highway and brought to Kangpokpi. How can we let such a force leave us at a time like this? Violence has again increased in Manipur.”
On Thursday afternoon, the chief of the Assam Rifles, lieutenant general Vikas Lakhera met the group of women protesting outside the gate. The chief explained they are soldiers; orders are sacrosanct, they have to leave, and that the CRPF is an equally competent force. But the women have refused vacate the road. Fearing the force could be moved out before the scheduled date, the women have decided to spend the nights there too. A gas stove has been arranged to prepare tea for those spending the night. Tents have also been erected to shade them from the rain. “We are here to stay. Every house has promised to send at least one member to stop the forces from leaving,” Kim Bem(52) said.
Meanwhile in Imphal ,Meitei students have sworn to skip classes until their demands are met. The government has had to suspend classes and postpone all PG and UG examinations until September 14. A first-year student of the DM College of Engineering, said, “Assam Rifles did not stop Kuki militants from dropping bombs. Assam Rifles are not acting against the Kukis because they don’t want to. We will not attend classes until our demands are met.” The students have also submitted the same demand in a memorandum to the governor on Wednesday.
“Removing Assam Rifles was there among the six different demands. The students are waiting and the protests will continue until the demands are met,” Rohan Philem, a social activist, who accompanied 10 student representatives to the governor’s house on Wednesday said.
The change of guard is set to happen a week later. In these 16 months, this is the first time, AR is moving out of the state.
Many bureaucrats in Imphal believe that the script for the protest and counter-protest were written months ago. Admitting that there have been controversies related to Assam Rifles in Manipur’s history, they say that the issue has never been as politicised as it has been in the past 16 months. “Even the representatives of the people are divided on their opinion about the force. Sometime in January, some BJP MLAs had written to the Centre demanding the removal of the force. A day later, 10 Kuki MLAs (also from the BJP) too wrote to the HM requesting it not to be moved. People on the ground are doing the same thing now. The CRPF is an equally capable and neutral force. But it is difficult to calm tempers just now. The timing to transfer AR out could have been different. It is true soldiers are needed in J&K but this move has turned out to be a bad one ,” a mid-level bureaucrat who asked not to be said named.
The spokesperson of the Assam Rifles in Manipur did not respond to queries. No senior officer wished to comment on the transfer even off the record.
A soldier in AR, who asked not to be identified said, “ AR is the one force where Kukis and Meiteis are still working together peacefully to restore peace here. AR rescued over 20000 people from both communities and transported them safely when violence first broke out. Why are soldiers being dragged into politics? We are here on internal security duty to restore peace. There is no enemy here. In a way it is good, some of us are going to J&K. There is an enemy there to fight against for the sake of the country.”