"Biren Singh has enemies among people who even don't know him"
New Delhi
One could say paradoxes rule the roost. Strategic experts say under the Act East Policy since 2014 efforts were on to build Moreh as a symbol of 'aspiration' for a rising Manipur and 'New India', but the reality was bitter.
One could also say the three Ms in action in full steam. The ammunition smuggled from across the border in Myanmar and meant to be delivered to Manipur were apprehended in Mizoram. The Assam Rifles personnel seized 351 rounds of live ammunition (7.62mm) from a vehicle at Mizoram-Myanmar border Zotlang village in Champhai district of Mizoram on Saturday.
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| a school converted as a relief camp: snap NYT |
With violence continuing in Manipur this was a good breakthrough and more a 'message' that arms and ammunition reaching hills and possibly valleys of Manipur from Myanmar also are contributing immensely to the present mess.
Strategically Myanmar is considered a land bridge between India’s Northeast and ASEAN and as a next door neighbour notwithstanding military rule it is also India's trading partner.
That militant groups in north east have nexus with various ethnic groups and armed gangs of Myanmar is no secret. For a long time the Naga insurgency issue hung considerably due to the influence of S S Khaplang, a Hemi Naga.
If one goes a bit deeper, it may not be erroneous to suggest that Myanmar also has a balancing role to play between the Indian and the Chinese strategic ambitions. But from the broader socio-economic and strategic perspective, Indian positioning has improved a lot. From 'Look East Policy' under Prime Minister Narendra Modi - it's the Act East Policy. But much of that 'rhetoric" does not match reality due to insurgency and absence of a 'secured atmosphere' in states such as Manipur and Nagaland.
The corporate and big-industrial houses investment could not come. Of course, there are legal impediments and other local but typical problems also.
In April 2022, Manipur cops arrested a van driver and seized 18 bars of gold, believed to have been smuggled in from Myanmar. The arrest took place at the Pallel police station in Kakching district.
This proved that besides drugs, gold and precious stones are also being smuggled through Manipur which officials said "has become a conduit for all kinds of contraband goods including sophisticated weapons".
Last year itself the 43 Assam Rifles had made another significant arrest of three drug traffickers from Assam and Assam police said brown sugar worth Rs 1.44 crore in the international market was recovered from them.
Look at the networking as those arrested were identified as Sahidur Aslam, Alimuddin Khan and Alam Ali -- said to be hailing from Karimganj district of Assam. Forces do not rule out their nexus with operatives in Bangladesh as well.
Manipur's BJP Chief Minister N. Biren SIngh, who returned to power in 2022, had made news for his administration's crackdown on drug business. "Biren Singh created enemies even amongst people who do not know him at all as the network he targeted is too massive. And especially measures to destroy poppy plants grown in the hill areas have unnerved influential people," says a retired military official.
From 2021-22 after the coup in Myanmar, security forces saw another trend when rebel groups from Myanmar had started using both Manipur and Mizoram to transport arms and equipment to aid their fight against the military junta.
Presence of a large number of Myanmar citizens taking shelter in Mizoram only helped the cause
of such reverse smuggling. After Myanmar's army launched a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters,
at least 40,000 Myanmar nationals including MPs, MLAs, police personnel have fled that country.
Mizoram shares a 510 km border with Myanmar while on a wider scale Myanmar has
a 1,643 km of international border with India along Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2020 the Covid19 crisis led to other challenges. There was a rise in smuggling and organized crime along
the Manipur-Myanmar border as insurgent groups easily found new recruits because the formal economy at the local level was
destroyed.
"There are reasons to believe that all that has unfolded in Manipur did not happen just like that.
Blaming ethnic and communal differences singularly and talking about ST status for Meteis
is the incomplete part of the Manipur story. There are reasons to believe that insurgent groups, drug lords
and arms dealers had reasons to take up joint effort at a massive scale because the going was getting
tougher and tougher," says an informed source.
So much has been the importance of the informal and illegal economy that around 2014-15, it was assessed that about
60,000 peoplev in Manipur and adjoining states earned their daily income through smuggling.
There were more interesting findings through different agencies. At least 18 militant groups in Manipur
ran their extortion racket full swing between Imphal and Moreh -- a stretch that passes through rugged and
hilly terrains.
The bigger issue of border security and smuggling is also reported from the village Behiang - located in the border district of Churachandpur - and the Myanmar village called Khenman. Both villages are on a highway connecting Imphal with Tedim town in Myanmar.
Essentially, sources say the multiple issues ought to be handled. Moreh township or the district of
Churachandpur are 'linked or twinned' with an adjoining settlement in Myanmar. This provides easy
warehousing facilities for contraband being smuggled into and out of India. Behiang
as a hamlet with smaller community settlement and till 2019 did not have a police station.
There is another irony in the tale. In 2020, one local Manipur politician had told me
that since the commencement of official trade at Moreh–Tamu junction, the number of heroin-processing
facilities could have been doubled from 22 to 44-45.
ends
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