The army has arrested Five NSCN (K) insurgents involved in the 4 June ambush in Manipur.
The far eastern land situated in India’s corner bordering the country’s limit with Myanmar, Bangladesh and the like south eastern countries has always been a troubled area. The news of the 4 June ambush of a military convoy in Manipur’s Chandel district killing 18 armed forces personnel, too did not come as a shocker to the country, because since the days of Nehru, this tiny part of the country has been the centre of sectarian movements and violent uprisings.
As of Thursday, “Five members of the ambush team have been caught and the search for the remaining killers is on.” an Army source told PTI. The arrested members have been handed over to the NIA for further investigation. After the ambush on the 4th of June, what followed was a string of arrests done by the Indian army. Another Noteworthy point is that this was the worst attack on the army in the state in many years. But the underlying fact in this whole incident is the tactical and strategical failure of the army to bring peace to the border state since the last 40 years or so. The AFSPA has been useless; it has only resulted in the abundant and reckless autocratic rule of the army in the states and has been serving no great cause.
After the grave incident, task forces were instilled with the task of investigating and they were able to determine the identities of numerous attackers from the wide array of proofs that they had discovered. The army soon, established a vehicle check post in Bishnupur district and arrested a 22-year-old NSCN (K) cadre SS Pte Giftson on Wednesday. The sources claim that he revealed his role in the ambush against the 6 DOGRA regiment at Paraolon village and gave further information. Another operation, launched yesterday, resulted in the arrest of one more NSCN (K) cadre involved from Kakching Lamkhai yesterday identifying himself as H Bojesh Monsang, 24, a resident of Chandel district itself.
The politics in the centre has been so occupied with all the reforms and its untameable desire to protect the majority that the problems faced by the North-Eastern states have as usual taken the backstage again. While growing forces conforming to the sectarian ideologies keep on merging from Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, etc the centre has been silent on the root cause of such insurgencies which is the poor socio economic development of the state. The physical and racial attack on the people of the states in different parts of the country has also been stringing up a mass feeling of apathy towards the country in the states.
The common people in the northeast have been instilled with the great fear that the centre along with the majority of the country is averse to their traditions which are widely different from the rest of the country and have always seen them as people with racially and culturally low identities ably supported by the negligence of the centre towards such states. The wave of identity politics, carried forward by the various regional parties and the insurgent groups, has been gaining support resulting from this has been the main cause of the frequent demands of separate statehood and violent insurgencies gaining in the Border States. The centre, leaving behind the idea of injecting army rule in the states like Manipur should instead try to address such grievances of the people there, which are the root cause of the problems.
