The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday, November 13 extended the ban under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against eight “Meitei extremist organisations” for advocating secession of Manipur from India through armed struggle. It declared the eight outfits as “unlawful association” for inciting indigenous people of Manipur for such secession, a government notification said. The government declared the eight outfits an unlawful association for a further period of five years affective November 13. The MHA notification collectively referred the outfits as “Meitei Extremist Organisations.”
“The central government, having regard to the circumstances, is further of opinion that it is necessary to declare the Meitei extremist organisations… as ‘unlawful associations’ and accordingly, in exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 3 of the said Act, the central government hereby directs that this notification shall, subject to any order that may be made under section 4 of the said Act, have effect from the 13th day of November, 2023, for a period of five years,” it said.
As per the notification, the eight organisations are the Peoples’ Liberation Army generally known as PLA, and its political wing, the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing, the Manipur Peoples’ Army (MPA), the Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and its armed wing, the ‘Red Army’, the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, also called the ‘Red Army’, the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK).
Further, the notification added that the Central government is of the opinion that the outfits have been engaging in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India; employing and engaging in armed means to achieve their objectives, attacking and killing the security forces, police and civilians in Manipur; indulging in acts of intimidation, extortion and looting of civilian population for collection of funds; making contacts with sources abroad for influencing public opinion and for securing their assistance by way of arms and training for the purpose of achieving their secessionist objective and maintaining camps in neighbouring countries for the purpose of sanctuaries, training and clandestine procurement of arms and ammunition.
It also said that the Central government is of the opinion that the activities of the organisations are detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India and that they are unlawful associations. It said if there is no immediate curb and control the activities, they will take the opportunity to “mobilise their cadres for escalating their secessionist, subversive, terrorist and violent activities; propagate anti-national activities in collusion with forces inimical to sovereignty and integrity of India; indulge in killings of civilians and targeting of the police and security force personnel; procure and induct illegal arms and ammunitions from across the international border; and extort and collect huge funds from public for their unlawful activities.”
A 2018 notification declaring the ban against the outfits said the groups were involved in 756 violent incidents from January1, 2013- July 31, 2018 and killed 86 persons including 35 security personnel during the same period. The Monday’s notification omitted reference to the number of violent incidents the organisations were involved in the past five years.
A senior government official said the role of the eight organisations in the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur has also been found.
Earlier, on September 23, NIA had arrested M Anand Singh, a former cadre of PLA from Imphal.
The agency alleged that Myanmar-based leaders of insurgent groups and proscribed terrorist organisations were recruiting over ground workers (OGW), cadre, and sympathisers to augment their strength for carrying out attacks on security forces and opponent ethnic groups.
At least 175 people have been killed and thousands have been displaced in the ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki-Zo and Meitei people since May 3.
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