Is Manipur the Ignored Killing Field of India?

Manipur, the land of jewels is now filled with killings, extortions, human right abuses, rapes, kidnappings and fake encounters. Even the life of 5-months old unborn child is no longer safe!

Is Manipur the new killing field of India? Or better say the IGNORED killing field of India! Imagine a pregnant woman is killed in front her son! How would you feel? This is what happened in Imphal recently when a young woman (Rabina, 23 yrs) who came out shopping with her three year old son, was killed in a broad day light shoot-out along with a UG suspect in a fake encounter. This incident cements the fact that Manipur and its citizens are not safe even from the Government instituted Armed Forces.

Read this: Contractor and Social Activist Yengkhom Krishnadas (42) who was abducted by some unidentified persons armed with guns and swords from his wife's place for a ransom of Rs 3 crore but he had been done to death even after paying Rs 25 lakhs.

Another incident that rocked the state was the brutal killings of Sub-divisional Officer/Sub-Divisional magistrate (SDO/SDM) of Kasom Khullen Sub-Divsion of Ukhrul district, Dr Thingnam Kishan (39 years) and two staff, by NSCN (IM) for not allowing a demand of the outfit to pay them the funds released for the NREGS job card holders without any condition. The three men were hacked with a hoe and smashed their heads with rock and other heavy weapons. Surprisingly, DC or any of the authority of the office had not lodged any complaint with the police or informed the higher authorities of the state government. Instead, they said that he had been on leave since the next day of his visit to the DC office.

In an escalating violence, the proprietor of Janta Radio Sales and Services Deepak Gupta (40) of Gurgaon, Haryana, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside his own shop located at Thangal Bazar on March 23 2009. Soon after the proprietor was shot dead, two UG suspects were killed in the encounter but whether the two slain UG suspects were involved in the killing of the proprietor or not were yet to be established. The encounter was likely to be fake as the local residents claimed that they heard the police commandos shouting at the alleged UG suspects to run before being gunned down.

Here one may also remember the death of the 8 year old girl in 2003 who was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 15 lakhs. The kidnappers took the life of Lungnila Elizabeth and dropped her mortal remains packed in a gunny bag. In a meeting of the Council of Ministers presided by Chief Minister O Ibobi condemned the killing and resolved to take up action to apprehend the culprits. Till today, the trial goes on but no clear verdict is given to the accused.

These are only a few incidents that provoked the people’s conscience to call strikes and bandhs thereby blocking the roads and causing unrest and most importantly affecting the normal life in the state. And the Chief Minister of the state, instead of acting responsibly keeps imposing curfew to suppress the people's open protest.

Can you imagine how many more have killed in such incidents which often go unreported? How many innocent people have lost their lives for nothing? How many mothers have lost their sons and how many women have become widows? If only you would dare to know the truth!

Today, the whole nation is panicky about H1N1 Influenza but no one cared enough to compare the figures. Let's have a look. So far, Swine Flu has claimed 83 lives in India as on 29th Aug, 2009. This figure is nothing compared to the number of deaths in Manipur this year. Since January 1, 308 has been killed out of which 144 are civilians, 157 are underground activists and 7 security forces.

And we are talking about Manipur only. If we look at the killings in other states of India, I would say swine flu is nothing and is just a passing phase. The number of "fake" encounter cases, registered by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the last over three years, shows that Manipur reported the second highest number of such incidents during 2008-09 and 2009-10 (till July this year).

While a big state like Uttar Pradesh has consistently been reporting the highest number of alleged fake encounter cases, Manipur has witnessed a substantial rise - from only one case during 2007-08 to 16 in 2008-09 and six during the first four months (April-July) during 2009-10.

So, how many deaths will it take till the central government knows that too many people have died?