Imphal: Even as Manipur’s security advisor, Kuldiep Singh has gone on
record saying the sniper and the group involved in the killing of
sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Chingtham Anand Kumar in Moreh
have been identified and an all-out effort is underway to nab
culprits, highly placed sources said that the fatal attack is the
handiwork of a newly set up group christened as People’s Protection
Force (PPF).
The sources, who don’t want to be named, said the shooting of the
police officer was executed under the supervision of a commander of a
Kuki militant outfit currently under the Suspension of Operation
(SoO), a tripartite ceasefire agreement with the state government and
the Centre.
While the Security Advisor stopped short of revealing the identities
of the people and group involved in the dastardly act that killed the
decorated police officer, they alleged that the PPF, based at Moreh,
had been planning to ambush the State Police’s Special Commandos
deployed to maintain law and order at the border town.
The source revealed that three days ahead of the sniper ambush that
killed SDPO Anand, functionaries of PPF and an apex Kuki civil body of
Tengnoupal district engaged a heated argument with the deceased police
officer over why the police personnel were clearing the Eastern Shine
school ground.
The deceased SDPO, along with 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion Commandant,
H Balram and Superintendent of Police (railways and special
commandos), Th. Krishnatombi Singh was supervising the clearance work of the school ground that started on October 26 to prepare for a helipad.
The sources alleged that after the heated agreement that took place on
October 29, a co-founder of PPF who is an ex-serviceman, along with a
commander of Kuki National Army (KNA) took position near a Meitei
Baptist church at Moreh, and using a ‘brand-new’ sniper, procured from
Thailand border, shot the SDPO.
The source further revealed that miscreants at Moreh are extorting
money from the residents of Moreh to buy ammunition, sophisticated
weapons, particularly snipers, and also to bring in master trainers
from Myanmar into Indian soil to train Chin-Kuki youths as PPF
volunteers.
Furthermore, the sources said that the recruits are being sheltered
and given arms training at Haolenphai and Sahei, the two Kuki villages
lying along the India-Myanmar international border on the Indian side
at Moreh.
They continued that the extortion drive in its initial campaign could
manage to extort a whopping Rs.8.7 crores. According to them the extortion ‘order’ was issued by an influential Chin-Kuki body based at Moreh, under the authority of its president.
It also alleged that sophisticated weapons like snipers, assault
rifles, rocket propellers, and explosives were recently purchased from
Thailand and China.
A second batch of arms training of PPF volunteers is underway at
Haolenphai and Sahei. It is stated that the KNA commander involved in
the sniper ambush was called in to supervise the training of the PPF.
Unprecedented ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on May 3, following a
tribal solidarity rally that turned violent in Churachandpur district,
leading to retaliatory violence between Chin-Kuki-Zo and the Meitei communities across the state.
On May 3 itself, violence spread to the international border town of
Moreh, with Chin-Kuki miscreants attacking, looting, and burning down
Meitei shops and homes in the main commercial town, forcing over 4000
Meitei residents of Moreh fled for safety.
Again, on July 26, a large mob torched over 30 abandoned Meitei houses
and demolished several other properties.
Meanwhile, the Chin-Kuki-Zo civil bodies have being campaigning
against the deployment of state security forces at the border town,
staging protest demonstrations and even blocking the national highway
that connects Imphal with Moreh, rendering Moreh inaccessible by road.
As an alternative, choppers are being used to ferry state forces and
other supplies in and out of Moreh.
Even as the state government were using two helipads maintained by 5
Assam Rifles to access Moreh by air, it decided to make a new one at
the Eastern Shine school ground for its movement as Chin-Kuki-Zo
womenfolk prevented movement by blocking the road leading to the two
helipads.
Immediately after the sniper ambush that killed the Moreh SDPO,
additional reinforcement of state force reached the border town and
sprang into action detecting 32 illegal Myanmarese immigrants on the
first day of a search operation on Wednesday.
