A little over a month after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram pulled up the Congress-led government of Okram Ibobi Singh, flagging Manipur’s law and order situation as the worst in the country, a militant group — KCP (MC) — went a step further by driving a car bomb into Imphal’s Raj Bhavan last week. A statement issued by the outfit said it aimed to target Governor Gurbachan Jagat, a former BSF director-general, for “masterminding the killing of innocent people in Manipur”. SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP looks at the outfit that struck deep into Manipur’s security establishment, bypassing several layers of security:

The outfit

Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) or KCP (MC) is one of the 30-odd armed underground groups in Manipur. It is one of the oldest underground outfits of the state, formed way back on April 13, 1980, under the leadership of Y Ibohanbi. Claiming to be a believer in Communist ideology, the group wants ‘liberation’ of Kangleipak — a local name for Manipur — through ‘armed struggle’. According to security agencies, the KCP has links with various other insurgent groups of the Northeast, and possesses a considerably good collection of weapons, which includes AK series rifles, US carbines and Chinese-made grenades and mortars, apart from having experts in manufacturing bombs.

Its factions

After its founder Y Ibohanbi was killed during an Army operation in 1995, the KCP split into several factions, four of which are named after their respective chiefs, and one, the original, is known as the KCP (MC). In July, CM Ibobi Singh had told the state Assembly that the outfit had at least 10 factions. Different factions of the KCP are said to have about 300 armed cadres.

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