‘Manipur Attack May Have Been Triggered By A Number Of Factors’

NEW DELHI: Is the ambush of an Assam Rifles convoy in Manipur’s Churachandpur the prelude to something larger? That’s hard to say, but Lt. Gen. Shokin Chauhan (Retd), former director-general of the Assam Rifles, points to the situation on the ground.

Talking to StratNewsGlobal on The Gist show, he said there is chaos in neighbouring Myanmar from where the insurgents of the People’s Liberation Army and the Manipur Naga People’s Front may have crossed over. The Indian army has thinned out units from the northeast and moved them towards the China border. Add to that, the Assam Rifles has cracked down hard on the drug trafficking these groups are involved in, hitting a major source of revenue. Otherwise, he says, these groups are small in number and have been relatively quiet.

In his view, the key now is for the Centre in coordination with Manipur and the neighbouring states of Assam and Nagaland, to drive a peace process that will end the insurgency. Gen. Chauhan argues that there is little support for insurgency among the youth, most of whom see themselves as Indians and see a future in India.