Fratidicial killings erupted again amongst Kuki armed groups in Manipur. This time, it was between the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) and the Kuki Village Volunteers. The skirmish broke out at the Pallel area, the last outpost in the valley leading to Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border. One UKLF cadre and three Village Volunteer Force cadres were killed. The chief of the UKLF, SS Haokip, was declared a wanted man by the rival group, and his house was set ablaze in the process. The UKLF was first formed in the late 1990s at the behest of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim under Issac and Muivah. Prior to that, the Nagas and Kukis had been at war, with nearly 1,000 Kukis killed and around 500 Nagas suffering casualties.

The UKLF, in spite of its fancy name, has never fired a shot in anger or otherwise at the Indian Security Forces or the state forces, and all that they did was levy taxes and extortion demands on the goods plying between the Myanmarese border and Imphal and beyond. Then they made headlines in 2000 when they waylaid and abducted the then deputy commissioner of Chandel district, Yambem Thamkishore Singh (IAS). Then they handed him over to the NSCN (I-M), who held him ransom for weapons seized from the NSCN (I-M) by a group of the state’s India Reserve Battalion, who had also shot dead about nine NSCN cadres and seized their weapons even as they were en route to the NSCN’s Republic Day celebrations.

Advertisement

Shri Okram Ibobi was the chief minister of Manipur, and Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister. I was privy to this as I was deputed by chief minister Ibobi to travel to Delhi and negotiate with the Centre, as the Centre and the NSCN (I-M) were having peace talks then and still now. I was then impressed upon ID Swami, who was the minister of state for home affairs, stating that Yambem Thamkishore is an IAS officer and, by that account, an employee of the government of India, and that abduction is an act of terrorism. Then I contacted the late Ashok Saikai, the all-powerful Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, and the deputy commissioner was released on a day that coincided with both Good Friday and the Hindu festival of Holi. Now the UKLF is in the news again, perhaps on account of a turf war or fight over monetary resources. Reports coming from across the border in Myanmar indicate at least three Kukis were killed in the Tamu area in the Sagaing division and two belonging to the Chin National Front at the hands of the Myanmarese military junta. The Chins in Myanmar are called Paites in Manipur and are now grouped under the Zomi Revolutionary Army.

Then the Manipur Legislative Assembly met for the monsoon session. That was around the time when over 1,000 internally displaced persons hailing from the bordering area of Moreh and stationed at the Akampat Relief Camp decided to stage a march to the Assembly building where the session was on to press their demand for a permanent settlement, having languished in the relief camp for over a year now. Perhaps the Imphal East district police panicked over the fear of a demonstration being staged outside the Assembly while in session. Soon, they lobbed tear gas shells inside the relief camps and staged a lathi charge. Then one sub-inspector went one step forward when he accosted a media man on duty who duly showed the sub-inspector his credentials. The sub-inspector soon vented out his pent-up feelings on the unsuspecting media man and showered him with blows who needed to be hospitalised. A frayed chief minister immediately placed the UB inspector under suspension, also calling the proposed rally politically motivated.

Then the debate continued in the House between the five Congress opposition MLAs on the question of whether the abrogation of the suspension of operations between the 24 odd armed Kuki groups on the one hand and the state and central government on the other after the State Assembly had resolved to abrogate the agreement on its side. The chief minister clarified that since the central government had not done the same, the suspension of operations is still on. As regards the monthly stipend of Rs 6,000 given to the Kuki militants, it has been pending since last year. Altogether, 2,181 Kuki militants have been listed as being under the Suspension of Operations arrangement, and a sum of Rs 27.38 crore has been paid by the state government till 2021. Unsatisfied with the government’s reply, the five Congress MLAs staged a walkout and stated that they would abstain from attending the Assembly session till its end. And also, the chief minister stated that a House Committee has been set up to study illegal immigration, adding that Kuki leader and minister in exile, Letpao Haokip, has been appointed as chairman. Barely a day after Letpao Haokip denied that he had been appointed chairman, he added that he had not attended the Assembly session since May 2023.

In the meantime, Manipur Governor Anushaya Uikey was unceremoniously It is not known whether the combined term of her earlier stint as Governor of Jharkhand for two years was taken into account to total up to five years or not, but the manner in which she was relieved of her duties came as a shock to the people. Uikey had been very accommodating in her approach to the state’s diverse problems and would meet almost all sections of the people and would even post them on social media. It might be coincidental, but just two days prior to her ouster, she gave an interview to a TV channel where she sounded critical of the BJP’s handling of the crisis at hand, both at the centre and in the state. But to critics awaiting a change in the political leadership in the state, it has been like “waiting for Godot,” to use a cliché from English literature.

The writer is a senior journalist at The Statesman