A recent intelligence report from the Manipur chief minister’s office claiming that more than 900 Kuki militants had entered the state from Myanmar could not be verified on the ground, Security Adviser Kuldiep Singh and Director General of Police Rajiv Singh said on Wednesday.
Following this, Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s office retracted its earlier input.
The September 16 intelligence report, which the chief minister’s office had sent to the security adviser and the director general of police, among others, had been widely circulated, The Indian Express reported.
The report claimed that “over 900 Kuki militants, newly trained in the use of drone-based bombs, projectiles, missiles and jungle warfare, have entered Manipur from Myanmar”, the newspaper reported.
The militants were organised into units of 30 persons “scattered around the periphery” and are “expected to launch multiple coordinated attacks on Meitei villages around September 28”, the report had claimed.
The report had caused panic among residents of the state’s Meitei-dominated areas, the newspaper reported.
On Wednesday, the security adviser and the police chief clarified that “the input was verified from different quarters, but it could not be substantiated on ground”.
They said that there was no basis at the moment to believe in the input and urged the public “not to believe in rumours or unverified information”.
After this, the chief minister’s office communicated to the state’s information and public relations department and security officials that the input it had sent earlier was being retracted.
The chief minister’s office said that it had shared the September 16 input to help the police “determine actionability” in the matter. “It is now ascertained that the possibility of any such misadventure by armed groups is remote,” it said, urging the public not to panic.
On September 20, Kuldiep Singh told reporters that security forces, especially the Assam Rifles, had been placed on high alert in the hill districts bordering Myanmar.
The Kukis are in the majority in the hill districts. Assam Rifles is a central paramilitary force.
He noted that the input was discussed in a meeting of the strategic operations group, which he chairs. The group includes top officials from security agencies such as the Indian Army, Manipur Police, Assam Rifles, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Border Security Force.
The statement by Kuldiep Singh had drawn criticism from Kuki-Zo groups.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, an umbrella group of Kuki organisations in Manipur, accused the security adviser of amplifying “devious propaganda” to defame the Kuki-Zos and to justify attacks on the community’s “volunteers”.
Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May 2023. At least 237 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes.
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