At least he did not say that youths taking up arms to defend their land and properties is against the law. Yet, we must say he is treading on a tricky path which few leaders as a chief minister had done anytime in the past while so many are crying for his head. Everyone knows what he is particularly referring to.
Thousands of arms and ammunition were looted from police armouries and gun shops by rampaging mobs in the wake of May 3 violence in both the valley and the hills. In the interview given to The Week magazine, the chief minister said that a large number of people stormed the police stations in Imphal and resorted to looting of arms a couple of days after armouries of police stations in the hills were looted. Maybe he had police briefings on the ‘chronology’ of events.
Besides, there are still differing narratives on how the ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the Kukis broke out. What matters now is that, many arms and ammunition looted from the police armouries are still around among the populace. Let us try unwinding the events, whatever be the chronology’, to the beginning of the violence. Traditionally, it was only a few among the valley population who had licensed weapons whereas in the hills almost every family owns a gun for purposes of ‘hunting’ or protection. So, when mobs in Churachandpur and Moreh started razing the Meitei houses and armed Kuki militants begun attacking Meitei villages in the fringe areas with nobody to protect them, it was but natural for the Meiteis to look for any available source of weapons to arm themselves and protect their villages.
On the other hand, the presence of valley based insurgent groups was minimal while in the hills armed Kuki militants under SoO were freely roaming around with arms and nobody minding whether they were present in the designated camps or not. Consider the difference in the number of arms and ammunition between the two communities not to talk of the lack of proactive measures and inaction on the part of the central forces. It was only after repeated complaints and public outbursts that the state forces began checking the camps with support from security forces which had previously asserted that it was the responsibility of the state home department according to the ground rules.
Recently Assam Rifles DG General PC Nair, while noting a decline in violence levels compared to previous months in Manipur, expressed deep concern over the widespread availability of weapons among civilians. He termed it as ‘weaponisation of society’ in a function in Chumukedima, Dimapur. On his part as the commander of a paramilitary force engaged in counter-insurgency operations, there is a logic in him being concerned. Also, one could not help recalling the optimism of the Chief Minister that once there is normalcy in the state youths will definitely surrender their weapons.
However, he also said that the government does not want to use force to recover the weapons until the people feel safe and secure. Consider this on the background of claims of impartiality of central forces and repeated resistance from the village volunteers backed by women-folk whenever arms and ammunition are confiscated by security forces.
Coming back to the issue of ‘looted’ arms, we do understand the ramifications of arms lying around. We had earlier warned about the rise of gun-culture in the state. New challenges have emerged which warrants a change in mindset for evolving a dynamic strategy as regards security management. Presently, widespread combing operations are going on in both the hills and the valley. But, the recovery of looted arms is still limited while unaccounted country-made guns seized are plenty. There is also the other issue of unaccounted guns lying around plenty in the hands of young and untrained.
In such a background, the state needs to prioritise on a strategy on how to convince the youth to surrender the arms lying around. One retired general had suggested the raising of a force to bring in the youths who were compelled to take up arms in view of the conflict. That is a sensible idea or one could think of a force in the lines of a National Guard to be on call in times of crisis and emergency. Without such a plan, youths surrendering arms and coming back to normal lives would be a dream.
