Police in Manipur have arrested three suspected members of a proscribed outfit in connection with a bomb blast in Bishnupur district that resulted in the deaths of two children. The arrests were made in Churachandpur district, and arms and ammunition were seized.
Manipur's Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam has appealed to the public for patience as the investigation into the April 7 bombing in Bishnupur district continues. The minister's plea comes amid public criticism over the failure to quickly apprehend those responsible for the attack that killed two children.
The kidnappers are suspected to be members of the United Kuki National Army (UNKA), a non-signatory to the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement.
Thousands in Manipur defy curfew to protest the bombing that killed two children, leading to clashes with security forces and widespread unrest.
At least four militants belonging to a banned outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in Manipur's Churachandpur district.
Preliminary reports suggested that they were shot from a point-blank range, another official in the Churachandpur district headquarters said.
Security forces in Manipur have arrested 10 militants belonging to various banned outfits.
India's Army Chief, General Upendra Dwivedi, emphasized the Indian Army's role as a "melting pot" and cited the harmony between Kuki and Meitei soldiers in the same units as an example of the force's unifying nature. He made the remarks during a lecture in Pune, highlighting the Army's efforts to promote unity and integration within its ranks. General Dwivedi also touched upon the Army's role in internal security in Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, and the upcoming Olympics.
The Zomi-Kuki organisation also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for a permanent solution to the ongoing ethnic strife
By ensuring Myanmar remains dependent on Chinese economic and military assistance, Beijing indirectly exerts pressure on India's North Eastern states, making New Delhi's regional security strategy even more complex.
Security forces in Manipur have launched a major crackdown on the banned People's Liberation Army (PLA) following an ambush on an Assam Rifles convoy. Fifteen cadres have been arrested, including suspects directly involved in the attack. Investigations are underway to determine if the PLA has political patronage and if weapons looted during ethnic clashes are being used against security forces.
The ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur has claimed 258 lives since May last year, the state government's Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh said on Friday.
'Political protection allow groups to recruit, rearm and operate with reduced operational pressure. That increases their bargaining power and their ability to destabilise.'
'You cannot 'clear' your way to peace.' 'You need intelligence, calibrated force, impartial law enforcement, political neutrality, humanitarian returns and a sustained reconciliation plan.'
The area was a theatre of violence for several years since Naga-Kuki ethnic clash broke out in 1993 and the civilian Kuki tribe population suffered severely in that war zone.
'There is a list with the Ministry of Home Affairs that has the details and names of the terrorist organisations that attack the Indian Army.'
'Our politicians solely depend on bureaucrats who are unaccountable and follow their own agenda.' 'Our politicians would dare not dream of establishing a DOGE,' argues Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The Bharatiya Janata Party is ahead in 20 seats in Manipur, with Chief Minister N Biren Singh leading by a handsome margin of more than 16,000 votes against his nearest Congress rival in Heingang constituency, Election Commission data showed.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
The government on Monday banned nine Meitei extremist groups and their associate organisations, which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities, and launching fatal attacks on security forces.
'The Assam Rifles are supporting the Kuki-narco terrorists.'
'Had it not been for the complicity of the state and Biren Singh's leadership, these riots would not have spread this far and for so long.'
Manipur witness more violence on Tuesday when unidentified armed men, suspected to be cadres of banned terror groups, attacked people from the tribal community in the morning killing three of them in Kangpokpi district, officials said.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA was extended by another six months in Manipur on Wednesday barring 19 police stations falling under the Imphal valley and an area that shares its boundary with neighbouring Assam.
A large number of women from Malom in Imphal West district blocked the road to the airport in protest against the killing of the policemen in Moreh.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's convoy was on Thursday stopped by the Manipur police at Bishnupur, about 20 kilometres from Imphal, officials said.
Altogether 78 persons were killed and 191 kidnapped by different insurgent outfits in Assam during the last two years when 20 security personnel were also killed, Minister Rockybul Hussain said on Monday in the assembly.
Manipur needs an integrated politico, military, socio-economic approach, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'The issue of the larger homeland of Nagalim, the dream of the Nagas to hold sway over swathes of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, is just that, a dream.' 'The NSCN has been told categorically that the government is not going to concede on this issue.'
To expect that these past decades of grief, inter-group killings, anxiety and fear will be brushed aside because of the Naga peace accord is being unrealistic. Memories are built on old wounds and they heal slowly. So, it is important to be cautiously optimistic, says Sanjoy Hazarika.
Indians all over the US are going beyond being human and are learning to be humanitarian and expand their philanthropy activities finds Ajailiu Niumai.
