Reports Insurgents Under Manipur Ceasefire Missing From 2 Camps Not True: Army Sources

Army sources have denied reports that two camps of insurgent groups that had signed a tripartite ceasefire agreement with the centre and the Manipur government were found completely empty in the India-Myanmar border districts of Tengnoupal and Chandel.

A senior police officer was shot dead in Tengnoupal district's Moreh town by an insurgent sniper on October 31. Known as the 'suspension of operations' (SoO) agreement, at least 25 Kuki insurgent groups that have signed it have to stay at designated camps as per the ground rules of the agreement.

The SoO agreement makes it mandatory for the insurgents to keep their weapons in locked storage at the designated camps, to be monitored jointly by the insurgents and the security forces regularly.

When joint teams of security forces went on patrols on Thursday to search for insurgents who shot police officer Chingtham Anand, they allegedly found two of the designated camps deserted, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Army sources, however, strongly refuted the allegations and requested to guard against unverified statements that may fuel rumours and heighten the emotions of an already agitated population.

"It is brought out that the two designated SoO camps in question in Tengnoupal and Chandel districts, which are located about 18-20 km from the international border, are being regularly checked. It is confirmed  that these camp remain occupied as on date also," army sources told NDTV.

They said the reports that the SoO camps were found empty were mostly rumours spread on social media and floated by vested interests on the ground.

The police officer was shot dead by a sniper while overseeing the construction of a helipad in Moreh, to be used by the state forces to fly in from the state capital Imphal 115 km away as the highway has been blocked by miscreants at many places.

The hill-majority Kuki tribes have strongly refuted allegations that the SoO groups are involved in the violence, and accused the Manipur government of using the state forces to drive out Kukis from Moreh and other areas.

Several Kuki civil society groups have asked the centre to withdraw the Manipur Police from Moreh town.

"The Kuki Inpi Manipur have made repeated appeals to the government of India to withdraw the police commandos from Moreh to prevent any untoward incident against the minority Kuki-Zo community," the civil society group Kuki Inpi said in a statement.

The Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) in a statement, after the Manipur Police officer was shot dead on Tuesday, criticised Chief Minister N Biren Singh over what it claimed was inequality on treatment of two cases of cop deaths - one was Onkhomang Haokip, who was killed in September, and the other was Tuesday's casualty.

Referring to Haokip's death, the ITLF said, "... The Chief Minister's Office remained startlingly mute on social media, and no immediate action to investigate was taken. Moreover, a meagre ex-gratia was announced... The brutal and cowardly assault on officer Haokip left his family bereft, yet the government's indifference was palpable."

The violence in Manipur has killed over 180 people and left thousands internally displaced.