Imphal: Security forces have recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition during search operations in Manipur’s Thoubal district, police said on Thursday.
The recovery was made during searches in Fungei Ching Ngamukhong area on Wednesday and no one was arrested in this connection a police statement said.
The recovered items include 16 firearms, six 36 HE grenades, two detonators, ammunition, and a walkie-talkie set along with a charger, it said.
According to security agencies in the state, members of many such groups are currently living across the border in Myanmar’s Tamu. They added that the VBIGs, primarily comprising Meiteis, are known to have the protection of the Myanmar military that took over the elected government in the country in a coup in 2021.
Senior officials in security agencies told ThePrint that the October incident did not raise many eyebrows as there is nothing new about the cadres of mentioned VBIGs living in Myanmar getting caught.
But what bothered them was the fact that the INSAS rifle recovered from the insurgent was part of the weaponry looted from police armouries in the valley in the aftermath of the violence that broke out in the state last May. “The security forces were able to locate from where the rifle came with the registration number mentioned on the weapon,” an official said.
This, sources in the security establishment said, is an indicator that the weapons looted from the armouries are being openly sold in the black market and have landed in the hands of insurgents operating from across the border.
“Sale and purchase of looted weapons has become a menace in Manipur. So much so that weapons are now landing up with insurgents across the border. Recovery of a police weapon, looted from Imphal, from an insurgent living in Myanmar is a clear indicator of how weapons are openly being sold,” a source said.
Four insurgents, security officials told ThePrint, were involved in an encounter with Myanmar’s People’s Defence Force (PDF) and Kuki National Force (Burmese)—both of whom are fighting against the Myanmar military—at Lalim, near the border on the Myanmar side.
While three of the group cadres were shot dead in the encounter, one of them was captured and subsequently handed over by the villagers on the Myanmar side to Assam Rifles at Laijang, which then handed him over to Manipur Police. The ones who were killed also had INSAS rifles in their possession.
This was not a one-off incident of recovery of looted weapons from insurgents from across the border or from outside Imphal. Over the last six-seven months, there have been close to half-a-dozen such instances, where the recovered weapons were traced back to Manipur Police armouries.
Even in the Jiribam incident of 11 November, where ten armed Kuki “militants” were killed in “retaliatory firing” after they attacked security forces, ten weapons recovered from them were found to be the ones looted from police armouries in Imphal.
“Now, one would ask how the weapons looted by Meiteis in the valley land up with insurgents in the hills? This is what has been happening. The sale of weapons is free for all,” a source said.
A senior security official, who did not want to be named, said, “We are increasingly coming across such instances, where for monetary gains, weapons that were looted mainly from valley-based police armouries and stations were sold off—not just outside the valley, but across the border, too.”
The official added that it has become a matter of concern for security agencies as it is difficult to recover looted weapons when there is little information about where all the weapons have been sold and who has access to them. “According to our information, the INSAS rifles are being sold for anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.”
