Imphal/Guwahati:

A video uploaded on the Congress party’s official YouTube channel ‘INC TV’ has become the latest flashpoint between the BJP and the Congress in Manipur.

In the now-deleted video, the Congress’s former Manipur in-charge Bhakta Charan Das alleged the state BJP created “two special forces like the RSS and the Bajrang Dal… One is Arambai Tenggol, and the other is called Meitei Leepun.”

“What are these organisations?” Mr Das said, referring to the two controversial organisations, and comparing them with the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Manipur BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh then raised in a public forum the comment made by Mr Das and questioned the Congress over the allegations.

Don’t need to say anything regarding this. Check this link of @INCIndia and see and hear for yourself. Rather than saying you don’t agree with the statement of the Central Leaders, @INCManipur is saying it’s a fake video. I have nothing to say, it means they are accepting what… https://t.co/GuUD5LTTVWpic.twitter.com/W8aHqNN7RQ

— Rajkumar Imo Singh (Modi Ka Parivaar) (@imosingh) April 3, 2024

In response, Manipur Congress spokesperson Kh Ratankumar Singh told reporters the BJP MLA referred to a fake video that has been dubbed, in which Mr Das was purportedly heard blaming one community over the ethnic violence in Manipur between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis.

In his counterattack, Rajkumar Imo Singh, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, posted on the microblogging platform ‘X’ the video from the Congress’s official YouTube channel in which Mr Das is heard questioning the ruling BJP in Manipur over alleged links with the two groups.

“Don’t need to say anything regarding this. Check this link of the Congress and see and hear for yourself. Rather than saying you don’t agree with the statement of the central leaders (of Congress), Manipur Congress is saying it’s a fake video. I have nothing to say. It means they are accepting what Bhakta Charan Das is saying,” Rajkumar Imo Singh said in the post which also has a hyperlink to the now-deleted Congress video.

“If the video is wrong, the state Congress should have told its headquarters in Delhi. It should have countered its own party to defend Manipur’s image from being tarnished,” Rajkumar Imo Singh added.

The state Congress spokesperson later clarified that Mr Das did make the comments on the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun last year just after the ethnic clashes escalated, adding the fake video to which the Congress is referring to is about Mr Das blaming one community for the violence.

“We won’t lie. Das had said all this last year amid the violence. But bringing up this video now is only propaganda. It is out of context. And Das made the comments in his personal capacity. It was not the party’s official statement,” Kh Ratankumar Singh told reporters in the state capital Imphal.

In a press conference held today at Congress Bhavan, Imphal Dr. Ratankumar, Spokesperson, MPCC, clarified the alleged charge by Shri @imosingh, MLA, BJP Manipur.
He said that the video produced by the BJP MLA is a doctored video and only to spread fake news to the people of… pic.twitter.com/roWUpsGKwH

— INC Manipur (@INCManipur) April 2, 2024

BJP sources said the state Congress spokesperson’s clarification is bizarre, given that the Opposition has been criticising the Manipur BJP over alleged links with the two groups, and now suddenly the Congress has a change of heart and doesn’t want to criticise the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun during election season.

“Why did the Congress remove the authentic YouTube video in which Mr Das is heard commenting on Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun?” a senior BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

The Arambai Tenggol, or AT, is a Meitei youth group that faces allegations of taking up arms and attacking Kuki-Zo villages. The AT has denied the allegation, and claimed it is only a village defence volunteer group, same as those from the Kuki-Zo tribes who are holed up in bunkers on the hills with sophisticated weapons.

The Meitei Leepun, headed by Pramot Singh, has been in the news for its aggressive stand against the Kuki-Zo tribes, which the group holds responsible for the crisis in Manipur. The Manipur Police had filed a case against Pramot Singh in July 2023 for allegedly promoting enmity between groups and criminal conspiracy.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held for Manipur’s two parliamentary constituencies at a time when 45,000 people are still living in relief camps. Over 210 have died in the violence, which began in May 2023 over a number of reasons, mainly serious disagreements over sharing land, resources, political representation, and affirmative action policies.

The entire Inner Manipur constituency and some areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 19. The remaining areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 26. Votes will be counted on June 4. The key candidates are Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh (BJP), Angomcha Bimol Akoijam (Congress), and Maheshwar Thounaojam of the Republican Party of India (Athawale).

Dimapur/New Delhi:

The people of Manipur should cooperate with the security forces in fighting armed groups that are exploiting the ethnic division in the state to carry out criminal activities, sources in the security forces told NDTV.

The appeal came a day after the Manipur Police in a strongly worded statement held the Meitei armed group Arambai Tenggol (AT) responsible for attacking a senior police officer in the state capital Imphal.

Members of the Arambai Tenggol call themselves “village defence volunteers”, in response to similar groups of the hill-majority Kuki-Zo tribes with whom the valley-majority Meiteis have been engaged in clashes since May 2023.

The AT enjoys wide support in the valley areas. Their supporters say the AT acts as a layer of defence in the absence of state forces in the foothills.

Sources in the security forces that are guarding “sensitive zones” near the foothills, however, have cautioned against what they called the “Arambai Tenggol’s false ideology” to mislead people for “personal gains”.

The Manipur Police, too, in a statement that was released to the media after a press briefing by two senior officers had said the AT is “engaged in many anti-social activities such as assaulting civilians, and snatching vehicles from the public and government officials.”

“We must give peace a chance. The people of Manipur must understand there are armed groups who are using brute muscle power to scare them into submission,” a source in the security forces told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

“We have been appealing to the people of Manipur to help the security forces bring peace. Many armed groups have attacked the security forces by taking advantage of the ethnic violence,” the source said.

In September 2023, a former Assam Regiment soldier Serto Thangthang Kom was kidnapped and killed by an unidentified armed group. He was posted in Manipur’s Leimakhong with the Defence Service Corps (DSC). “He was on leave at his house in Imphal West at the time of incident,” the Indian Army’s Spear Corps had said in a post on X.

#SpearCorps pays homage to Sep Serto Thangthang Kom, who was abducted and later killed by unidentified miscreants in #Manipur. Sep Serto had earlier served in Assam Regiment of Indian Army and was now posted with #DSC Platoon at Leimakhong Military Station. He was on leave at his… pic.twitter.com/giRdUdLait

— SpearCorps.IndianArmy (@Spearcorps) September 17, 2023

Two months later, an unidentified armed group kidnapped four people while they were travelling in an SUV from the hill district Churachandpur to Leimakhong, and killed them. The four were family members of an army soldier serving in Jammu and Kashmir. A fifth passenger, the father of the soldier, who was injured, managed to escape and was later airlifted by the army to Dimapur for treatment. He was eventually shifted to the base hospital in Assam’s Guwahati.

Sources said the body of the soldier’s mother has been found, and is being kept at a hospital. The authorities are working to take the body to Leimakhong, from where the body could be airlifted to Churachandpur for the last rites, sources said.

Tuesday’s attack on the house of a senior police officer in Imphal city was the latest in a series of cases in the valley areas involving the AT and possibly other armed groups, sources in the security forces said. Following the attack, the state had called in central forces including the army to Imphal city, from where the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, or AFSPA, had been removed years ago. This law allows the security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without a warrant. The AFSPA is active in the hill areas due to presence of insurgents of several ethnicities along the border with troubled Myanmar.

“There is a need to make people aware about the dangers of falling into the propaganda trap of criminals who pretend to be working for society. The people should cooperate with the security forces to bring peace in Manipur,” the source in the forces said.

The clash between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis has dragged on for 10 months now. Over 200 have died in the violence and thousands have been internally displaced.

Imphal:

The Manipur Police fired several rounds in the air today to disperse a mob that surrounded a police station near the Chief Minister’s office in the state capital Imphal. Curfew has been reimposed in the city.

Reports of gunfire at other parts of Imphal city have come at the time of filing this report.

The mob, allegedly led by the local youth group Arambai Tenggol, demanded weapons from the police station in protest against what they called the state government’s inaction following the killing of a senior police officer by an insurgent sniper in the India-Myanmar border town Moreh yesterday.

The mob clashed with the security forces and allegedly tried to surround the 1st Manipur Rifles complex, close to the Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister’s office in Imphal West district, demanding arms and ammunition, police sources said.

To control the mob, the security forces first baton-charged them, but had to fire in the air as the crowds kept on pushing in. Some people were injured in the clash, police sources said.