Kuku Students Organisation spokesperson and Manipur Chief Minister
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh today congratulated the Assam Rifles for what he said was the arrest of a "Burmese national" who is allegedly a member of the Myanmar-based insurgent group Kuki National Army (Burma), or KNA(B).
The Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO-GHQ), however, said the man being referred to by the Chief Minister as a member of the KNA(B) is a registered refugee, who fled from the conflict in Myanmar.
"I really appreciate the activities of the Assam Rifles who arrested one Burmese national, KNA(B). As a Chief Minister I have been continuously saying since the beginning that the present crisis in Manipur has a foreign hand. Some people believe it, some don't. I appreciate the Assam Rifles for apprehending the foreign national," Mr Singh, who belongs to the ruling BJP and the valley-dominant Meitei community, told reporters in the state capital Imphal today.
His comment drew sharp criticism from the KSO, whose spokesperson told NDTV that the young man who the Chief Minister called a KNA(B) member was indeed from Myanmar, but registered in the official records along with his thumb prints and other details as a refugee. The KSO spokesperson said the Assam Rifles knows the man is a registered refugee.
The Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police have not given a statement on the matter.
Thousands of Myanmar nationals have crossed into Manipur and neighbouring Mizoram, fleeing the conflict between pro-democracy ethnic rebels and the junta. The Assam Rifles guards the Indo-Myanmar border as well as conduct counter-insurgency operations.
"The KSO general headquarters is shocked and surprised at the same time because someone as the Chief Minister, without inquiring more details about what's happening, made such a silly judgment. The apprehended person... who is from Myanmar - of course he is a foreigner - but has been here registered as a refugee, which was accepted by the Assam Rifles," the KSO spokesperson told NDTV today.
"We have all the details. In spite of all the details available on social media as well... when we have all these details, why would a refugee be caught? And then after that brand him a militant or outlaw? This is so wrong. I think the Chief Minister should be more focussed and inquire into the tape leak than any other problem just to deviate from what is going on," he said, referring to leaked audio tapes that purportedly has the Chief Minister taking responsibility for starting the Manipur crisis.
The audio tapes have been submitted to an inquiry panel under the Home Ministry, and those who provided the tapes have given affidavits saying the content is genuine, according to reports by the news website The Wire.
The Manipur government has called the audio tapes "doctored", meant to sabotage peace plans in the ethnic violence-hit state.
Yesterday, top sources had told NDTV no KNA(B) member was arrested in Manipur's Chandel, as claimed by some media reports.
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.