After Video Of Men Playing Football Holding AK-47s Went Viral, 5 Arrested In Manipur

Five men who were seen in a viral video playing football while carrying assault rifles in Manipur's Kangpokpi district have been arrested.

While the police arrested them on Wednesday, the announcement came a day after President's Rule with the assembly in suspended animation was enforced in the violence-hit state.

In the video, the men were seen in football kits carrying AK and American-origin M series assault rifles, kicking a football around. The guns had red ribbons tied around the barrel.

"Manipur Police arrested five persons who were involved in a video getting circulated on various social media like YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook etc where 10/15 miscreants in camouflage attire and some people in football kit were seen holding sophisticated arms at K Gamnomphai village ground... Kangpokpi district," the police said in a post on X. "These people were seen in video in football kits holding arms..."

The five arrested men have been identified as Mangtinlen Kipgen alia Baemang, 26; Mangtinlen Kipgen, 24; Seithenmang Kipgen, 28; Lunminsei Kipgen, 21, and Lunkhogin Kipgen, 24.

The police announced the five arrests though over a dozen were seen carrying assault rifles while 'playing' football.

On 12.02.2025, Manipur Police arrested 05 (five) persons who were involved in a video getting circulated on various social media like YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook etc. where 10/15 miscreants in camouflage attire and some people in football kit were seen holding sophisticated arms...

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) February 13, 2025

The social media influencer, Nampi Romeo Hansong, deleted the Instagram video which carried the watermark 'Kukiland' and a hashtag in his name. Mr Hansong, who has 11,000 followers, later posted a short video of the football match on Instagram - without the men carrying assault rifles.

Nampi Romeo Hansongm, who posted the video on Instagram and later a version on YouTube with the gunmen edited out

On his YouTube channel, which has 1.09 lakh subscribers, he posted a nearly six-minute-long video showing the men with guns -- from the earlier video that he deleted -- for the first three seconds.

The video was further edited and updated to remove the men carrying guns. NDTV has a copy of the original video.

While the rest of the video has cultural performances and scenes from the football match, heavily armed men in dark green battledress are seen dancing at the venue towards the end of the video. Their helmets and shoulder patches carried a red logo usually seen worn by militants of the Kuki National Front (P), or KNF-P, whose turf is Kangpokpi.

Manipur's Gun Problem

Dozens of militants from the Meitei community have been arrested in the last few days for extortion. The arrests are likely to rise, now that President's Rule is in force, police sources said.

In 2023, the year the Manipur violence began, young men armed with automatic assault rifles from both communities were frequently seen roaming in the open. Hundreds of videos have surfaced on social media.

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Members of the Meitei militia Arambai Tenggol armed with military-grade grenade launchers and AKs were often seen 'patrolling' the foothills, while their Kuki counterparts were seen in bunkers on the hilltops with similar weapons.

Both sides claim they are "village volunteers".

With the security forces and the government authorities themselves using the word "village volunteers", these groups of young people may have become more and more confident of showing off lethal weapons and normalising the act in the absence of effective deterrence, local activists have alleged.

Many senior officers of the security forces have publicly said militants from both sides are involved in the Manipur violence. These include violations of the SoO agreement by Kuki militants, and Meitei militants who had been dormant for the last 10 years returning to Manipur from war-torn Myanmar.