Manipur Police kept out of 'buffer zones'

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Imphal, October 3

Four barricades — each one at a stone’s throw from the previous one — greet visitors coming to Kuki-majority Churachandpur from the Meitei-dominated Imphal side. The first barricade is manned by the Army, the second by the Assam Rifles, the third by the BSF and the last one by the CRPF.

At each of these barricades, visitors’ papers are checked and their names and purpose of visit are taken down before being allowed entry. What is noteworthy here is that all four barriers are manned by central forces. Talking to The Tribune, Kuldiep Singh, former CRPF DG, who has been appointed Security Adviser to the Manipur Government in the wake of the hostilities breaking out between the Kukis and the Meiteis in the state, said presence of central forces is necessary to reassure the residents about the neutrality of the forces in the case of a crisis.

Official sources said 200 companies of central paramilitary forces and 170 Army columns are deployed in Manipur at present in view of the ethnic clashes going on in the state for over five months now. Concentration of central forces could be found especially in such locations where areas inhabited by one community ends and areas inhabited by another begins.

“In the media these locations with heavy presence of Central forces are known as buffer zones. We call them hotspots. The multiple barriers set up before Churachandpur is one of those hotspots. There are a number of such hotspots across the state,” Kuldiep Singh said.

New Delhi has also replaced Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei, by Kuldiep Singh as the Chairman of the Unified Command constituted to supervise the security operations in the state. Biren Singh has never hidden his resentment over the removal from the post of the Chairman of the Unified Command. Recently, top BJP leaders of Manipur, including state president A Sharda Devi, wrote to party chief JP Nadda to “restore full command of the Unified Command to the Chief Minister as it would re-establish full confidence and trust to the government in dealing with the situation”.

Kuldiep Singh, on the other hand, said he has been appointed Chairman of the Unified Command by the Biren Singh-led Manipur government only. “There is also the provision that the Chief Minister can call a meeting of the Unified Command and preside over the meeting,” Kuldiep Singh said.