The Union Home Ministry has announced that 50 companies of the Central Armed Police Force will be sent to Jiribam district in violence-hit Manipur, where at least 19 deaths have been reported this month. Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting on Monday evening to review the escalating situation, having convened a similar discussion on Sunday.
A ministry team is expected to visit affected areas following the meeting to help state officials handle the crisis. Re-imposing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, AFSPA, in ‘hyper-sensitive’ areas is also on the discussion table, while AFSPA has been re-imposed in six police station areas, including Jiribam, barely days ago.
AFSPA gives wide-ranging powers to the military in areas declared as ‘disturbed’, barring prosecution of military personnel without approval from the central government. Prior to this latest re-imposition, 19 police station areas had been removed from the ambit of AFSPA.
Sources say a coordinated action plan involving central and state forces, as well as other agencies, is being planned to effectively manage the situation. Chief Minister N Biren Singh, against whom the resignation demand is growing louder, is slated to meet the MLAs this evening.
The fresh bout of violence in Manipur is a spillover of a long-standing confrontation between the predominantly Hindu Meitei and mainly Christian Kuki communities. The violence has caused a split in the hitherto co-living ethnic groups. In recent incidents, houses belonging to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislators, including the Health Minister, were targeted, while a mob trying to storm Chief Minister’s residence clashed with security forces.
The bodies of six – three women and three children – who were kidnapped last week by suspected Kuki insurgents from Jiribam, were found five days later across the border in Assam. In protests that turned violent, one protester, a 21-year-old man, was reportedly shot during clashes with police. How he was killed, however, is not exactly known.
In another incident, a gunfight between militants and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) left ten suspected Kuki militants dead. Their bodies were greeted with protests from Kuki tribespeople, who surrounded the hospital storing the remains and announced a ‘coffin rally’ in honor of the deceased.
The National People’s Party has pulled out its support for the BJP government over the Chief Minister’s inability to handle the crisis. NPP, however, explained that it did not sever ties with the government and was only opposing the administration of Biren Singh. The NPP leader and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma made a point on the confidence-building initiative and said the absence of such a move has resulted in what is happening on the ground.
The BJP, with 32 seats in the 60-member Assembly, has been under continuous pressure from its ideological mentor, the RSS, to effect an early solution to the current crisis in the state.
