Guwahati, May 8 : Human rights workers in Manipur say they will hold a rally in the capital on Sunday to protest a government move to arm civilians in a decades-old battle with separatist insurgents.
Late on Wednesday, police arrested a youth leader after he organised a meeting in Imphal at which newspaper editors, lawyers, and leaders of women’s groups expressed concern the decision would escalate violence in the state.
“Arming of villagers will lead to more anarchy in Manipur,” Sapamcha Kangleipal, president of the Manipur Forward Youth Front, had said in his speech at the meeting.
“What will happen if the people demand arms from militants to fight the atrocities of security forces deployed for counter-insurgency?” he added.
Kangleipal was later arrested him for making a seditious statement, police said.
“A case has been registered against him for his remarks at the meeting. He has been arrested,” a senior police officer in Imphal said.
Human rights activists said more arrests are likely to follow but say they will not be intimidated.
“We are apprehensive of more police action. But we are not going to remain silent,” said one human rights activist, who requested not to be named.
“We are mobilising people for a mass rally.”
Officials in the remote state, which has a porous border with military-ruled Myanmar, have so far recruited a few hundred youths from two districts to act as special police officers.
They plan to provide them with a uniform, food, rifles, and motorcycles and pay them a monthly pay packet of 3,000 rupees ($75) and press them into service alongside security forces trying to contain a string of rebellions.
Manipur has a growing number of unemployed young men who may be willing to sign up.
India’s northeast, which has largely been bypassed by India’s economic boom, is home to more than 200 tribes and ethnic groups and is racked by separatist insurgencies.
In Manipur alone, more than half a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting around 50,000 Indian troops, some battling for freedom and others for political autonomy.
The conflict has left more than 20,000 people dead.
In Chhattisgarh, authorities have funded and armed since 2005 an anti-Maoist movement made up of poor tribal people, including children, known as the Salwa Judum or Campaign for Peace.
But the vulnerable and largely untrained villagers have failed to tilt the balance in favour of the state, and their camps have regularly been attacked by the rebels.
In March, the Supreme Court condemned the movement, and said the state would be abetting a crime if the group’s members killed innocent bystanders.
Reuters
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