IMPHAL: A tribunal under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) has declared seven Meitei insurgent groups from the valley as “unlawful associations” for the next five years.
In an extension of its November 2023 order, Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi highlighted the necessity of immediate action to prevent these groups from escalating their “secessionist, subversive, and violent activities”, a national daily reported.
Referencing a report submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the tribunal, Justice Medhi’s order said that the seven outfits were responsible for 335 out of 689 violent incidents in Manipur over the past five years.
The proscribed groups include the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, the Red Army, the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), the Coordination Committee (CorCom), and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK).
Reportedly, the order also established links between these outfits and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah).
In its report to the tribunal, set-up by the Centre in November 2023, the MHA noted that these proscribed groups have a combined cadre strength of approximately 1,250 members and possess 1,559 sophisticated weapons.
The Ministry’s report further detailed the historical context, stating that these groups were first declared unlawful associations in 1979, with the declarations being continuously extended, most recently on November 13, 2018.
Earlier in November 2023, the tribunal had banned these Meitei outfits for the next five years.
