GUWAHATI: Manipur CM N Biren Singh’s office has forwarded to cops a purported intelligence alert about influx of 900-odd tribal militants from Myanmar – all newly trained in use of drones, projectiles and missiles as part of a mission to launch coordinated attacks on villages in the Imphal valley around Sept 28.
Kuldiep Singh, security adviser to the BJP-led govt, said Friday that “until this intelligence input is proved wrong, we believe it is 100% correct and prepare for that”.
“If it does not come true, either it didn’t happen or our efforts didn’t let it happen. Either way, you cannot take it lightly,” said the ex-CRPF director general on deputation to Manipur since the ethnic conflict flared up in mid-2023.
The Sept 16 alert from the CMO states that tribal militants “are reportedly grouped in units of 30 members each and currently scattered on the periphery, and expected to launch multiple coordinated attacks”.
The security adviser said districts and border units of Manipur Police & Assam Rifles were on maximum alert.
A meeting of strategic operations group took placeon Sept 18. Singh said the planned measures had been communicated to the relevant agencies with a directive that any movement of militants be “nipped in the bud”. The districts on high alert are Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Ukhrul, Kamjong and Pherzawl.
Singh said traditional combing operations focus on seizing arms, but there was now “increased scrutiny” of materials used to manufacture rockets, missiles, drone components, and batteries.
“DMs have been alerted and asked to check stocks of explosives with licensed owners. All connected roads and villages within a 5km radius of the hills are also being checked for stockpiles.”
The security adviser said that of the 2,681 weapons seized by security forces since the conflict started, one-third were in the hills and two-thirds in the valley.
“The availability of weapons in society in both the hills and the valley is not because of looting (from state armouries and police stations). They were already available much before (the ethnic conflict began). Single-barrel breech loaders and double-barrel breech loaders were there, some of them licensed and some manufactured illegally.”