13 militants held from homes of Manipur MLAs

IMPHAL, AUGUST 17: 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.

The police also recovered one dismantled M-16 rifle, two 9 mm pistols and several rounds from a toilet cistern in Brajabidhu Singh’s residence. All the guns were in varying stages of rust when displayed by the police. Among the arrested cadres, one had come from a Myanmar camp to avail of medical treatment in the state capital, Joykumar added. “The police has had a lot of trouble from the militants in the past, and this raid is part of the state police’s drive against these outfits. There will be more raids based on intelligence inputs.”

Brajabidhu’s quarters, located opposite the DC, Imphal’s (West) bungalow, was under heavy security cover even in the afternoon, with Additional SP Jalil personally supervising operations there. The MLA was seen in the courtyard with some of his family members, but did not speak to the media.

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