In Manipur 'Migrants' Are Soft Targets Of Terror Groups

Manipur has been a state plagued by insurgency for decades. People here still live on razor's edge, sandwiched between the insurgent and the security forces and often become prey of violence and get hit in cross fire in counter insurgency operation.

Manipur’s capital Imphal is once again in news for violence. In the latest violence, three daily-wage labourers were killed, while four others were injured seriously when a very powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in  a bus stand in the heart of Imphal city.


The IED was kept by the side of a mobile tea stall near the bus stand at Khoyathong area of the city. All killed and injured are non-Manipuri migrant labourers.

Police said the IED planted by the roadside near Imphal market exploded killing three labourers and injuring four others. The injured are undergoing treatment at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and the condition of one of the injured is stated to be critical.

Now, such IED blasts are nothing new in Imphal.  Manipur has been a state plagued by insurgency for decades. People here still live on razor’s edge, sandwiched between the insurgent and the security forces and often become prey of violence and get hit in cross fire in counter insurgency operation. Sometimes they are killed at will in what now everyone knows as fake encounters. 

Only last week, one person was killed and five others were injured in a similar IED blast. In most of the recent cases of violence, the victims have been Non-Manipuris.  Over past two years Non-Manipuri migrant labourers have been the prime target ever since a strong movement is afoot in the trouble-torn state asking for Inner Line Permit (ILP) mechanism like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

In fact, with this incident, this year nine Non-Manipuris have been killed in the state in IED blast. The unified platform for all rebel groups operating in the Imphal Valley has been categorical on keeping the Migrant population away. While about 35 odd rebel groups operate in Manipur, one of the ways New Delhi thought to bring peace is by carrying out lot of developmental work in the region. 

Thus is the inflow of migrant workers. Many of them are also alleged illegal migrants from Bangladesh. So in a state where there has been no holds barred violation of human rights, migrants becoming soft targets of rebel groups are just the beginning of yet another spell of bloody violence. Is New Delhi equally worried?