Imphal, Jul 19 : Fearstricken villagers in Heirok, who only two months ago had cheered a government initiative to arm them against militants, today said they did not want deployment of special police officers.
Thousands of people marched through the village roads in Thoubal today and gathered at a playground to adopt a one-line resolution: “Heirok no longer wants SPOs.”The U-turn on the “empowerment” issue came after the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup and the United National Liberation Front imposed restrictions on the movement of villagers, including students, as a punishment for accepting the government’s proposal for deployment of SPOs.
Militant threats forced more than 300 students studying in schools and colleges in various parts of the state to return home and remain confined to the village.
The two rebel outfits, however, responded to an appeal by a women’s organisation and lifted the restrictions for 10 days with effect from July 11 to give people time to take a final stand on the issue.
The volte face, however, could not have been more badly timed. The 300 SPO recruits from Heirok are on the verge of completing their monthlong police training at the 2nd Manipur Rifles training centre in Imphal and joining their new jobs.
The government, however, appears adamant on deploying the force at Heirok.
“There is no change in the government policy of raising the SPO force for Heirok. We don’t want to make much comment on this issue,” a senior government official said tonight.
The rallyists, however, urged the government to recruit the SPOs in the state force, a demand the Okram Ibobi Singh government is unlikely to accept.
“Heirok accepted the SPOs without knowing its full implications. Now we are apprehensive that we will be caught between three guns (one from the militants, one from the government forces and another from the SPOs),” Khundongbam Kumudini, president of the women’s organisation, said.
Laishram Mandir, secretary of the action committee, maintained that Heirok had demanded weapons for each house for self-defence and not SPOs.
The village had demanded weapons after militants mowed down three youths during Holi festival in March.
“Taking advantage of the gullible nature of the villagers, the government went ahead with the SPO plan. Now we know what an SPO is and we don’t want a village force that would be used by the government in counter-insurgency operations,” he said.
While Heirok rallied to keep SPOs at bay, two citizens’ groups today vowed to put an end to the “disappearance” of minors by drumming up mass support against child-lifting and recruitment of minors by militant organisations.
The United People’s Front and the Ethno Heritage Council have convened a meeting of professionals, including lawyers, citizen bodies, meira paibis and teachers, on July 21 to take a united stand on the abductions. Official sources put the figure of missing children to 13 since May 1 and admitted that there were several cases that went unreported.
“We want suggestions of people from all walks of life to end this trend of child-lifting or recruitment by armed groups. Hence this meeting on July 21,” L. Ratan, secretary of the council, said.
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