Manipur: Level of violence coming down, but state continues to be volatile
This is hardly surprising as most fatalities of the violence are by sniper rifles on both sides.
According to retired Lt. Gen LN Singh the violence in Manipur, in its initial phase, was community-based mob violence. The General, who once headed the Indian Army’s Intelligence Corps, revealed that the quality of violence has degenerated as terrorists have taken over as the guns are targeting unarmed civilians which is unacceptable.
“There is a distinction between terrorist, insurgent and militant.
Why are the people, those in Jammu & Kashmir or Al Qaeda called terrorists, whereas people fighting in the northeast called insurgents? The reason being — in insurgency there is a respect for human lives. Normally, one does not kill for the heck of killing. There is respect for the right to live.
Meaning there are some rules applied. But what is happening here is that initially it started off as mob violence. Now, I feel that the terrorists have taken over with no regard for human lives.” said Singh.
Even after four months the violence continued and most victims were unarmed civilians even with such a massive deployment of central forces on the ground, numbering almost 60,000 personnel.
On the question of the poor performance of the Central force in containing the violence so far, the third Lt. Gen of the Indian Army from northeast India, said that the Central forces must reassess and rethink their strategy as the perpetrators of the violence have changed and so their strategy needs to also.
“The major challenge for the security forces is — because they believe that these are community-based mobs who aren’t demanding sovereignty, they were probably more lenient as they thought they could negotiate and reason with them. However,
