New Delhi: For the first time, 150 personnel of the Assam Rifles will be moved out of their operational area of the northeast and will be posted in Jammu, where there has been an uptick in militant activity.
Most of the personnel who will be shifted are drawn from the strife-torn state of Manipur, amid protests by Kukis that the Union government must reconsider its decision regarding “non-partisan” Assam Rifles, The Times of India reported.
Since the start of ethnic conflict in Manipur, the central paramilitary force has been drawn into controversy, with Meiteis alleging that it is biased towards Kukis.
The government has decided to move out 9th and 22nd Battalions of the Assam Rifles deployed in Manipur’s Kangvai along the Churachandpur-Bishnupur border, and Kangchup on the Kangpokpi-Imphal (East) inter-district borders. The Assam Rifles in these areas will be replaced by by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Citing sources, the TOI report said about 2,000 personnel of CRPF are being transferred to Manipur from Jammu and Kashmir, and Telangana. “It has been recommended that the command and control of the two CRPF battalions, relieving the AR (Assam Rifles) battalions, is vested with the respective AR sector headquarters of IG (E) and IG (S), to ensure cohesion in operations in these sensitive areas.” Additionally, the two CRPF battalions will undergo three months of on-the-job training “in view of the prevailing security situation in the state”.
Ten Kuki-Zomi-Hmar MLAs of Manipur, opposing the plan, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the decision.
“We have come to learn that there is a plan to withdraw the 9th and 22nd Battalions of the Assam Rifles from their current sensitive deployment at Kangvai and Kangpokpi, following pressure from the communally biased elements in the state government who leave no stone unturned to portray the AR in a bad light just for the simple reason that they stood tall to serve as perhaps the finest neutral force so far,” the memorandum said, according to India Today.
The MLAs asserted that the Assam Rifles is indispensable for the maintenance of the current status quo in ‘buffer zones’ in the state, adding that they may be replaced by other Battalions of the Assam Rifles instead.
The tribal legislators alleged, according to the India Today report, “the decision to replace the Assam Rifles battalion with the CRPF at this critical juncture is nothing but a sinister design to expedite the Meitei majoritarian ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kuki-Zo community”.
A unique paramilitary force, the Assam Rifles is operationally controlled by the Indian Army, but from an administrative point of view it reports to the Union home ministry.
