South Asia Terrorism Portal

INDIA

Manipur: Despicable Politics
Ajit Kumar Singh
Senior Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

The Government of India on June 4, 2023, has notified a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, to inquire into the incidents of violence in the state of Manipur on May 3, 2023, and thereafter. The Commission chaired by Justice Ajai Lamba, former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court with Himanshu Shekhar Das, Indian Administrative Service (Retd.) and Aloka Prabhakar, Indian Police Service (Retd.) as members, according to the notification “shall make inquiry with respect to the causes and spread of the violence, which took place in Manipur, and whether there were any lapses on the part of any of the responsible authorities or individuals.”

On the last day of his four-day (May 29-June 1) visit to the state, Union Home Minister (UHM) Amit Shah had assured the Press that “a judicial commission will be set up under the chairmanship of retired Chief Justice of the High Court to investigate the Manipur violence”. He had also asserted that “a peace committee would also be constituted under the chairmanship of the Governor of Manipur, in which representatives of all sections would be included.” This peace committee is yet to be formed. However, several peace committees consisting of different Ministers and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have been formed and teams have rushed to the violence affected areas to 'restore normalcy'.

Ethnic clashes erupted between Kukis and Meitei/Meetei on May 3, 2023, in Churachandpur District, and spread rapidly across the state. According to the latest official figures released on June 2, 2023, at least 98 people have lost their lives and 310 have been injured in these clashes. In all, 4,014 cases of arson have been reported. Since the beginning of the violence, the state police has registered 3,734 cases and arrested 65 people for their involvement. The official release said that, at present, a total of 37,450 persons displaced by the violence had taken refuge in 272 relief camps.

Indefinite curfew was imposed in large part of the state following the violence on May 3. Curfew is still in force though curfew relaxation has been made for 12 hours in the valley and between seven to 10 hours in neighboring hill districts. State-wide internet shut-down that was imposed on May 3 remains in effect till today.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the June 1, 2023, press conference, appealed for peace and urged people who had looted weapons from police armouries to return the weapons at the earliest, failing which they would face stern action. [A June 4, 2023, report citing an unnamed official stated that only 18 per cent of over 4,000 weapons, looted or taken away from police armouries have been surrendered to the authorities.] In a clear indication of fear of insurgents becoming active participants in the ongoing violence, Shah warned that those who violate the Suspension of Operation (SoO) conditions would be dealt with sternly. It is pertinent to recall here that a total of 23 insurgent groups in Manipur under two conglomerates [United Peoples' Front (UPF) – eight; and the Kuki National Organization (KNO) – 15] are currently under SoO Agreements with the GoI, since August, 2008.

The UHM, however, categorically described the present violence as nasli hinsa (ethnic violence).

On June 1, 2023, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, responding to a question regarding the involvement of 'insurgent groups', emphasized,

Earlier, on May 30, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan had asserted,

Thus, both the Army Chief and the CDS termed the violence as ethnic, dismissing allegations of armed insurgent involvement.

In a despicable attempt to polarize populations, however, state Chief Minister (CM) N. Biren Singh, who has for long been widely criticized for his communal politics, favoring the majority Meitei Hindu community, in an irresponsible statement on May 28 had asserted,

Several media outlets linked to the Hindutva movement compounded these allegations by declaring that the conflict was a Christian (Kuki) – Hindu (Meitie) confrontation, and weaving a generalized narrative of Christian Missionary activities in the state and Northeast region into allegations of ‘church-sponsored violence’ in the present context, developing another stream of falsehoods, which quickly inflamed social media.

Chief Minister Biren Singh has been adopting an anti-Kuki stand for long. In an interview published on May 9, 2023, his fellow Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Saikot Paolienlal Haokip in the Churachandpur District of Manipur asserted that the Chief Minister was “anti-Kuki”, and “prejudiced and was “maligning the entire Kuki community”, adding “many Meiteis confirm this”.

In his statement on May 28, Biren Singh sought to introduce the ‘insurgency’ angle in order to shift the blame for the violence exclusively on the Kukis, even before an investigation had been launched. Unfortunately for him, the statements that followed – by the UHM, Army Chief, CDS and Security Advisor – challenged his claims and exposed his malicious designs.

It is significant that the present crisis has largely been sparked by the order of a single judge bench of the Manipur High Court on March 27, 2023, comprising Acting Chief Justice M.V. Muralidaran, directing,

Soon after the judgment, tensions started emerging in the state, eventually culminating in major violence on May 3, with a dramatic escalation on May 27-28, and continuing sporadically thereafter.

It is significant that a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud has rejected Muralidaran's order as "obnoxious" and "absolutely wrong". The CGI noted further,

Though the bench was initially of the view that it would set aside the High Court order, it later chose to direct the petitioners to join the proceedings before the division bench of the High Court hearing the intra-court appeals challenging the order of the single judge bench.

Significantly, and despite the Supreme Court’s observations, Justice Muralidaran failed to rescind his order, only amending it to extend the deadline of “four weeks” to “one year”.

While the security situation has now improved, occasional flare-ups persist, with the most recent flashpoint at Serou in Kakching District, any laxity at this juncture may prove detrimental as ethnic violence has not ended as yet. Indeed, ethnic violence had subsided after few days of major clashes in early May, only to flare up again in end-May.

It is significant that the present eruption of violence comes after years of steady counter-insurgency consolidation in Manipur. The SATP database, which has documented the conflict since March 6, 2000, registers a peak of 496 fatalities in 2008; just seven insurgency-linked fatalities were recorded in 2022.

The previous year had seen an abrupt spike, with 27 fatalities recorded in 2021, but 2020 registered just seven killed, and 2019, nine fatalities.

The multiple insurgencies in Manipur date back to over four decades. Enormous success has been achieved in containing most of the insurgencies, and SF dominance has been secured across the state at enormous cost in blood and money. A small cluster of seven ‘Valley based’ (Meitei) groups – under the umbrella identity of CorCom (Coordination Committee) – and seven other groups - Hmar People's Convention- Democracy (HPC-D), National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA), Kuki National Front (KNF), National Revolutionary Front of Manipur (NRFM) and Kuki National Liberation Front (KNLF) - remain marginally active.

The attempts to polarize the populations under these circumstances is nothing short of criminal malice. The High Court’s ‘obnoxious’ order, and the Chief Minister’s equally obnoxious statements, have destabilized the state, provoked widespread violence, and entrenched communal prejudice and hatred even deeper than before. The harm done will take years, if not decades, to repair – if, indeed, there is a sustained and good-faith effort to abandon the despicable politics of polarization. It is unlikely that Chief Minister Biren Singh can spearhead any such good-faith initiative, given his patently communal approach, and the complete loss of faith, certainly, of the state’s tribal population – as well as of at least a section of the Meitei community. It remains to be seen whether a more sagacious leadership will be brought to the helm. If not, Manipur is likely to see worse to come.

INDIA

TPC: Dwindling Threat
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On May 28, 2023, Police arrested six cadres of the Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee/Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TSPC/TPC), a splinter group of the Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist), along with weapons, near the Donki-Hesatu-Barwahi tri-junction under Herhanj Police Station limits in the Latehar District of Jharkhand. The arrested cadres, who had had reportedly gathered near Donki-Hesatu-Barwahi, to carry out some attacks, were identified as Mukesh Yadav (20), dent of Hotai village; Mukesh Yadav (20), resident of Titlangi village; Awadhesh Yadav (23), resident of Cherry village; Prabhat Kumar Yadav alias Afzal alias Abhishek (22), resident of Bidra village; all in the Palamu District of Jharkhand; Bhim Paswan (26), resident of Donki village; and Nandu Sharma (28), resident of Janho village, both in Latehar District. Police recovered one country made rifle, one Katta (Country-made fire arm), six live cartridges, four mobiles of different companies and one motorcycle from the possession of the arrested cadres.

On May 27, 2023, Police arrested three cadres of the TSPC/TPC, including an ‘area commander’, Chhotan Turi alias Badal, and two others, Rakesh Singh and Mohammad Takir, who were demanding ‘levy’ (extortion money) in the Tandwa coalfield area of Chatra District in Jharkhand. Police disclosed that foreign weapons, including an Italian-made pistol, an American-made pistol, a country-made pistol, 17 cartridges, and documents were recovered from the possession of the arrested cadres. Superintendent of Police (SP), Rakesh Ranjan added that, with these arrests, the Police had solved the firing incident that took place on May 6, 2023, at the Purnadih Colliery in the Piparwar Police Station area of Chatra District, in which Vinod Giri, an employee of Maithon Power, sustained injuries.

According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 19 TSPC/TPC cadres have been arrested in Jharkhand since the beginning of 2023 (all data till June 4). During the corresponding period of 2022, 26 cadres of TSPC/TPC were arrested. A total of 50 cadres of TSPC/TPC were arrested through 2022. Since the formation of TSPC/TPC in 2002, at least 267 cadres of the group have been arrested.

Though no TSPC/TPC cadre has been killed in the current year, three cadres of its cadres were killed during the corresponding period of 2022. TSPC/TPC suffered no further fatal loss in 2022. Since the formation of the group in 2002, a total of 70 cadres have been killed. 

Security Forces (SFs) exchanged fire with TSPC/TPC cadres on at least 33 occasions since 2002, including two incidents in 2022 and five in the current year. In the latest incident, on January 29, 2023, the Jharkhand Jaguars and Ranchi Police exchanged fire with TSPC/TPC cadres in the Sumu Forest of the Budhmu area in Ranchi District, Jharkhand, following information that a TSPC/TPC squad including, Vikram Mahto, and Gurudev, both ‘zonal commanders’, and Ranjit Mahto and Vinod Mahto alias Murari, both ‘area commanders’, and others, had come to collect ‘levy’ from the brick kiln operators in the area. Though the extremists managed to escape, Police recovered 777 cartridges, seven walkie-talkies, etc., from the encounter site.

Six incidents of arms and ammunitions recovery have been reported in the current year, in addition to three such incidents reported through 2022. A total of 81 such incidents have been reported since 2002.

Mounting SF pressure against the outfit has led to the surrender of at least nine TSPC/TPC cadres since 2002. This includes one surrender in the current year.

Importantly, since its formation in 2002, TSPC/TPC has not been involved in the killing of any SF trooper.

On the other hand, the outfit has been involved in the killing of 22 civilians since its formation. However, the last TSPC/TPC-linked civilian killing was reported on March 17, 2017, when the group's ‘zonal commander’ Anil Kushwaha alias Rakesh Mishra and 10 other cadres killed Jitendra Kharwar (18) over a delay in serving them food in the Rohtas District of Bihar.

Founded by Brajesh Ganjhu alias Sardar ji, a former CPI-Maoist cadre in Lawalong area in Chatra in 2001, and formally constituted in 2002, the TSPC/TPC found its place one among the 18 Left Wing Extremist outfits operating in Jharkhand. It is widely believed that TSPC/TPC was originally formed as a state proxy, to help neutralize the activities and influence of the dominant CPI-Maoist. This is why the group avoided confrontations with SFs and engaged with them only if no other option was available. The group, however, engaged in extortion from contractors, businessmen, government employees and any one they could lay their hands on. Coal traders in Districts including Latehar are also specifically targeted for extortion by the outfit. There have been a number of incidents in which TSPC/TPC carried out violent attacks targeting construction equipment of contractors, and against their employees, when their extortion demands were not met.

Indeed, despite continuous weakening over the years, the group has not ended its activities, and continues, mainly, targeting contractors. Some recent incidents include: 

March 20, 2023: A group of 40 armed cadres of the TSPC/TPC stormed a brick kiln at Kanda village under the Bisrampur Police Station in Palamu District and took several workers hostage. Then they set ablaze at least five tractors parked on the premises. Subsequently, they freed the workers. The armed cadres had their faces covered. The attack is believed to have been an attempt at extortion.

February 13, 2023: TSPC/TPC cadres created a disturbance at the Bhim Chulha tunnel construction site between the Mohammadganj and Satbahini stations of the East Central Railways in Palamu District. They opened fire at the officials present at the construction site and set vehicles ablaze. No casualty was reported. The TSPC/TPC cadres left leaflets in the name of Nishant ji at the construction site, in which a warning had been given to stop work. It was reported that the company had not met the 'levy' demands of the outfit.  

Following the June 29 encounter (mentioned above) Ranchi's SP (Rural) Naushad Alam disclosed, on February 13, 2023,

Though the SFs have substantially incapacitated the TSPC/TPC, a residual challenge remains, as is evident from recent incidents. Moreover, two 'regional commanders' of TSPC/TPC, Akraman Ganjhu, carrying a reward of INR 1.5 million, and Shashikant alias Arif, carrying a reward of INR one million; two 'zonal commanders', Vikram Mahto, and Gurudev; and two 'area commanders' Ranjit Mahto and Vinod Mahto alias Murari, continue to evade arrest.

SFs are, of course continuing with their targeted operations against the surviving cadres/leaders of the outfit in their efforts to completely neutralize the threat in the state as well as in the neighbouring areas.