Guwahati: The People’s Alliance for Peace and Progress, Manipur (PAPPM), a civil society organisation of the northeastern state, has demanded immediate withdrawal of the tripartite suspension of operation (SoO) with the two Kuki insurgent groups.
On August 22, 2008, the Centre and the Manipur government signed a tripartite Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with Kuki militant groups, United People’s Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO).
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Since then, the government has been extending the agreement after it expired. A similar agreement was also signed with the Zomi Revolutionary Organization (ZRO) in the same year (2008).
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the SoO agreement, the PAPPM said the continuation of the truce is a big threat not only to the harmonious co-existence of the people of Manipur but also to the national security of India.
The citizen’s group on Saturday dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh with the demand.
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While raising the demand, PAPPM alleged that poppy cultivation in the hills of the state was taken up under the patronage of militant groups taking advantage of the SoO.
The quantum of drug smuggling through Manipur has also increased manifold since then, the letter read.
“It is also known that these militant groups were bringing Myanmar nationals and settling them in the hills of Manipur by taking advantage of SoO,” the letter stated.
Extortion in some hills districts which were otherwise not affected has also increased dramatically since the militants enjoyed the truce, it said.
It was not surprising considering that P Soyang Haokip, president and supreme commander of the Kuki National Army (KNA) and the chairman of KNO is of Myanmar origin and was born in Molnoi village in Sagaing division of Myanmar, it mentioned.
Dr Seilen Haokip, the spokesperson of KNO is from Mizoram and was born of a Bengali father and a Kuki mother with a strong Myanmar connection. His mother later became the second wife of a person from the Haokip clan of Saitu in Kangpokpi and thus he got his Haokip surname, the PAPPM said.
The PAPPM alleged that the continuation of the SoO agreement with KNA/KNO and ZRA/ZRO is not in the interest of the indigenous people of Manipur living together for many centuries under the Manipur Kingdom in the past and now under the India Union and striving for a peaceful and progressive Manipur and hence Indian nation.
“We welcome the peace process, but it should be initiated only with the leaders who are born and brought up in the state of Manipur,” the PAPPM added.