NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Amidst the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur, a serving Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of the Indian Army was abducted from his home in Thoubal district on Friday. It was fourth such incident since ethnic violence began in the border state in May last year.
Sources said the JCO Konsam Kheda Singh was kidnapped from home by unknown people in a vehicle at 9 am. “On receiving information, a coordinated search operation was launched by all security agencies to rescue the JCO. We have been checking all vehicles running on National Highway 102. We don’t know why he has been kidnapped. We are looking into it,” a source in the security establishment said.
Teams of security forces have spread out in the area to look for the kidnapped officer, the source said, adding they will give an update as soon as they get more details.
Ever since the conflict began in Manipur on May 3, 2023, between the dominant Valley-based Meitei people and the hills-based Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo people, at least 219 people have been killed and tens of thousands internally displaced.
This is the fourth instance of soldiers either on leave or on duty or their relatives being individually targeted since the conflict began. “The security forces working to bring peace and normalcy are being targetted for performing their duties,” the source said.
In September 2023, a former Assam Regiment soldier Serto Thangthang Kom, posted in Leimakhong with the Defence Service Corps (DSC) was kidnapped and killed by an unidentified armed group. “He was on leave at his house in Imphal West at the time of incident,” the Indian Army’s Spear Corps had said in a post on X.
Two months later, an unidentified armed group kidnapped four people while they were travelling in an SUV from the hill district Churachandpur to Leimakhong, and killed them. The four were family members of an Indian Army soldier serving in Jammu and Kashmir. A fifth passenger, the father of the soldier, who was injured, managed to escape and was later airlifted by the army to Dimapur for treatment. He was eventually shifted to the base hospital in Guwahati, Assam.
Sources said the father, after treatment at the Base Hospital Guwahati, is now recovering at the Leimakhong Military Hospital. The body of the soldier’s mother has been found and has been shifted to Leimakhong, from where the body will be airlifted to Churachandpur for the last rites, sources said.
In another case of attack on those who are looking after law and order, an Additional Superintendent of Police was briefly kidnapped in Imphal city on February 27. The attackers in this case were identified as Arambai Tenggol (AT), a Meitei group of radical armed personnel, by the police. The incident had led to Manipur Police staging an arms-down protest in Imphal and other areas seeking a free hand to deal with outfits like AT. The police in a subtle warning indicated such incidents would lead to conditions for re-imposing the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, or AFSPA.
“The security forces toiling day and night for early restoration of peace and normalcy are being targeted for performing their duty. The attacks by the inimical elements on security forces and their families need to be strongly condemned and perpetrators caught and punished as per the law,” the source in the security establishment said.
(Manas Dasgupta)