Manipur Chief Minister N Bren Singh said, “I appreciate the Assam Rifles for arresting the foreign national.”
Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi: Manipur Chief Minister N Bren Singh today congratulated the Assam Rifles for arresting a “Burmese national” said to be a member of Myanmar-based insurgent group Kuki National Army (Burma) or KNA(B).
However, the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO-GHQ) claimed that the man referred to by the chief minister as a member of the KNA(B) was a registered refugee who had fled the conflict in Myanmar.
“I really appreciate the actions of the Assam Rifles in arresting a Burmese national called KNA(P). As a chief minister I have been saying from the beginning that there are foreign hands in the present crisis in Manipur. Some believe, some don’t. I appreciate Assam for taking up rifles to arrest that foreigner,” Mr Singh, who is from the ruling BJP and the Valley’s dominant Meitei community, told reporters in the state capital Imphal today.
His remarks were sharply criticised by the KSO, whose spokesperson told NDTV that the youth whom the chief minister called a member of the KNA(B) was in fact from Myanmar but was registered as a refugee in official records with his thumbprints and other details. A KSO spokesperson said the Assam Rifles were aware that the man was a registered refugee.
The Assam Rifles and the Manipur police have not issued any statement on the matter.
Thousands of Myanmar nationals have crossed into Manipur and neighbouring Mizoram, fleeing conflict between pro-democracy ethnic insurgents and the military regime. The Assam Rifles are involved in security and counter-terrorism operations along the India-Myanmar border.
“The KSO headquarters was shocked and surprised at the same time that a man called the Chief, without seeking more information about what was going on, took such a stupid decision. The man apprehended…is from Myanmar – of course he is a foreigner – but has been registered here as a refugee, which has been accepted by the Assam Rifles,” a KSO spokesperson told NDTV today.
Sources told NDTV that being a refugee means that a person cannot be a member of any foreign insurgent group. The Manipur government has long been raising the issue of illegal migrants entering the state unabated.
In the Manipur Assembly on August 6, the Chief Minister said illegal immigration was a major threat to the state’s tribals and insisted that those who entered after 1961 should be deported with the help of the central government.
Responding to a question by Naga People’s Front MLA Leishio Keishing in the Assembly, Mr Singh described the situation as “alarming” and stressed the need for unity to combat illegal immigration. “This is a dangerous situation. There has been a demographic change due to illegal immigration, but some sections do not believe in it. Without unity, the problem cannot be tackled,” Mr Singh said.
In June, several Naga civil organisations and bodies in Manipur asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to send illegal Myanmar migrants back to their country. Naga organisations petitioned the Home Minister to deport illegal Myanmar immigrants.
The note indicated that about 5,457 illegal immigrants from Myanmar have taken refuge in eight Tangul villages in Manipur’s Kamjong district, bordering Myanmar, and outnumber local residents.
According to some media reports, top sources told NDTV yesterday that no KNA (B) member has been arrested in Chandel, Manipur.
The hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley have several villages of the Kuki tribe. Clashes between the Meitei community, which dominates parts of Manipur’s hill country, and about two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term coined by the British during the colonial era – have claimed over 220 lives and left 50,000 internally displaced.
The Meiteis, a general class, want to be included under the Scheduled Tribe category, while the Kukis, who share ethnic ties with neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram, want a separate administration from Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal allocation of resources and powers.
