In a pre-dawn cordon and search operation conducted in the high-security and VIP area of Babupara, Manipur Police arrested 13 militants belonging to various valley-based outfits from the official residences of three sitting Congress MLAs, including eight cadres of the Kanglei Yawol Kanba Lup (KYKL) from the house of one of the MLAs alone. The police raid finally established the long-suspected nexus between Manipur’s politicians and militant organisations.

The raid, conducted by Imphal (West) police commandos led by DIG (Range-1) M Karnajit and SP Clay Khongsai, began at 3 am on Friday, and the search party moved in at around 4 am, police sources said. For long, security and intelligence agencies have known that MLAs have been harbouring militants in their official residences, but any raids carried out earlier were either smothered or pre-empted under political pressure, sources added. Located in central Imphal, Babupara also houses Chief Minister Okram Ibobi as well as all MLAs.

Director General of Police Y Joykumar, who arrived an hour late for the media briefing after meeting the CM, said some arms and ammunition and several extortion letters had also been recovered from the arrested militants. “While eight KYKL cadres were picked up from MLA Brajabidhu’s residence, one cadre each of the KCP and the PLA were arrested from MLA K Meghachandra Singh’s quarters. One PREPAK cadre was arrested from MLA Bijoy Koijam’s residence, and one KCP cadre from ex-MLA N Sovakiran Singh’s home.”

While confirming that all the politicians were present at their respective residences, Joykumar said only the militants had been arrested till now. The DGP said the MLAs would be questioned as part of the investigation, and depending on the results, action may be taken against them—a stance that seems indicative of a “go-easy” approach towards the MLAs in question as of now, possibly under political pressure. The Congress, with 31 seats in the 60-member Manipur Legislative Assembly, is the single largest party and has been thumpingly re-elected to power in the elections conducted in February this year.

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