AFSPA back in Manipur, but only for tribals

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 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.

It has not come as a surprise to many political analysts that the police station areas where the Disturbed Areas Act has not been imposed are all majority Meitei community dominated areas.

With the extension of AFSPA, the Army and Assam Rifles cannot operate inside the areas under the 19 police stations without the consent of the state police.

This is in abeyance of security officials advocating bringing the entire state under AFSPA so that they could easily ensure that the presence of terror groups within the valley is reduced or eliminated.

The security agencies have in the past warned the government that banned terror groups United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Kanglei Yawol Kanba Lup (KYKL), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and KCP have been forming their base in the Imphal valley of the state.

They have also been warning about the possibility of these terrorists mingling with crowds during any protest to stoke tensions in restive Manipur, but their concerns seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

At present UNLF has a cadre strength of 330 followed by PLA with 300 and KYKL with 25 who were active within the groups of the majority community, as per security intel shared with the government.

The overwhelming support being extended to cadres of these banned organisations was witnessed on June 24, when Army and Assam Rifles, based on specific intelligence, nabbed 12 members of KYKL in East Imphal including self-styled ‘Lt Colonel’ Moirangthem Tamba alias Uttam, the masterminds of the ambush on 6 Dogra regiment in 2015 that left 18 army soldiers dead.

The extension of the AFSPA in the hill areas was of least significance as more than 20 terror groups from the tribal areas had entered into an agreement for Suspension of Operations (SoO) with the Centre and the state government.

AFSPA was used sporadically in the hill districts of Manipur to tackle insurgency before being imposed across the whole state in 1980. The killing of Thangjam Manorama on July 10, 2004, by the Indian Armed Forces brought out hundreds of women protesting withdrawal of AFSPA and the armed forces from the state.

The naked protest by the twelve Imas (mothers in Manipuri/Meitei) in front of Kangla Fort on July 15, 2004, against the atrocities by the security forces garnered nationwide attention and played a crucial role in the central government’s decision to withdraw AFSPA from Imphal Municipal areas in August 2004.

With the improved law and order situation in Manipur, in June 2022 the central government decided to withdraw AFSPA, for the second time, from the jurisdiction of 15 police stations in six predominantly Meitei-inhabited districts.

In areas tagged ‘disturbed’ where the Act is enforced, the fundamental right of a citizen enshrined under Article 21, the Right to Life, is rendered meaningless. The Act also empowers personnel to enter and search any premises without warrant as well as destroy or dismantle any structure which is suspected to harbour rebels.

The 2004 protest, whose anniversary is observed by activists in the state as ‘Anti-Repression Day’, brought the world’s gaze to alleged military excesses in the state and the number of extrajudicial killings in Manipur has fallen since.

But justice for Manorama and 1,528 other victims either killed or went missing in similar circumstances remains elusive, and the AFSPA is back in place.