Foreign hand not ruled out in Manipur: Former Army Chief

New Delhi, July 29

Former Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane (retd) has said the involvement of foreign agencies in the Manipur violence “cannot be ruled out”. He flagged the “Chinese aid to various insurgent groups”.

Chinese Aid

Chinese aid has been helping these groups for years and will continue to do so even now.

Gen MM Naravane (retd), former army chief

General Naravane said instability in border states is bad for the country’s overall national security.

He was responding to questions on Manipur while interacting with journalists at the India International Centre on the topic ‘National Security Perspective’ on Friday night.

“The involvement of foreign agencies, not only I say, cannot be ruled out but I will say they are definitely there, especially Chinese aid to various insurgent groups,” he said.

The former Army Chief said the Chinese aid has been helping these groups for years and would continue to do so even now.

On a question about the role of drug trafficking in the ongoing violence in the Northeastern state, the General said drug smuggling has been there for a very long time and the amount of drugs which has been seized has only increased over years.

Myanmar, he opined, was always in a state of disarray and military rule. Even at the best of times in Myanmar, the government only had control over central Myanmar, not really on the borders states whether with India or with China or with Thailand.

General Naravane was asked about Army recruitment scheme Agnipath on which he said: “The scheme was launched after a great deal of deliberations.”