AFSPA has been reimposed in six police station areas in Manipur
The Centre has reimposed a law to protect security forces in hostile areas in several new locations in ethnic violence-hit Manipur. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been reimposed in six police station areas including Jiribam, where 10 suspected Kuki militants were shot dead in an encounter with the security forces on Monday, and from where three women and three children of the Meitei community were kidnapped by suspected insurgents.
The AFSPA gives sweeping powers to the military to operate freely anywhere that has been declared a "disturbed area"; no military personnel in an area where AFSPA is in force can be prosecuted without the Centre's permission.
The AFSPA reimposition will allow the security forces to freely engage armed groups that have not signed any ceasefire deal with the government.
Before this, 19 police station areas in Manipur were not under AFSPA coverage as they were considered peaceful. The recent escalation in violence, however, has brought the controversial law back to at least six police station areas.
The six new areas where the security forces can operate under the immunity provided by AFSPA are Sekmai and Lamsang in Imphal West district, Lamlai in Imphal East district, Jiribam in Jiribam district, Leimakhong in Kangpokpi, and Moirang in Bishnupur.
AFSPA was withdrawn from the 19 police station areas in the valley region after seeing normalcy. The Meitei-Kuki ethnic violence that broke out in May 2023, however, led to many young people taking up arms. Meitei insurgent groups that had been active only in Myanmar after being pushed out of India have allegedly returned to the valley in large numbers.
The Kuki-Zo tribes also have nearly 24 insurgent groups that have signed a ceasefire with the Centre and the state government, called the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement. The agreement says the insurgents are to stay in designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.
However, the Kuki-Zo insurgent groups, too, have been accused of training young people and supplying weapons to fight Meitei groups, especially the armed group Arambai Tenggol.
AFPSA has been in force in all the hill areas of Manipur.
Both Meitei and Kuki armed groups that sprang up after May 2023 call themselves "village defence volunteers".
The SoO agreement lapsed in February and it has not been extended yet. The fate of the agreement is not publicly known. The Kuki tribes have been demanding the reimposition of AFSPA in the valley areas, citing a large number of Meitei armed groups operating under the name of "village defence volunteers".
The only time any authority in Manipur admitted to the involvement of insurgent groups of both the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes was on September 9, after five bodies were found following a fierce gunfight.
Three of the bodies were confirmed as Kuki insurgents from Churachandpur district; the fourth was identified as a Kuki volunteer from Jiribam; the fifth was identified as a member of the Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF(P), the police had said in a statement.
The three Kuki insurgents were members of the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA), a signatory of the SoO agreement. The UNLF(P), too, had signed a ceasefire deal with the Centre and the state government. The UNLF is the oldest Meitei insurgent group, which later broke up into two factions; the Pambei faction signed a tripartite peace agreement with the Centre and the state government in November 2023.
There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.
The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.