If there were any doubts about the near-total breakdown of law and order in Manipur over the past six weeks, a clutch of first information reports (FIRs) reported by this newspaper should remove them. These 22 documents, filed from 10 police station areas across four districts — Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Kakching — paint a damning picture of administrative abdication and police inaction in the northeastern state that has been convulsed by violence since May 3. Statements from eyewitnesses and investigating officers said that thousands-strong mobs of men and women stormed the armouries of police stations on numerous occasions and fled with deadly weapons, carbines, and sophisticated guns, facing very little resistance. In some cases, the FIRs noted, thousands of people surrounded police stations and held personnel captive even as they looted weapons and guns. More worryingly, one FIR noted that it was the police constable of the local station who broke the lock of the armoury and helped the mob get access to firearms, highlighting again the disturbing nexus between rioters and some elements of the police machinery that has been alleged by observers and civil society groups.
The large-scale loot of lethal weapons is alarming in any region of India, but in a sensitive border area with a long history of ethnic conflict and militancy, it is a national security threat. Unless the weapons are confiscated urgently and the people behind the loot identified, it has the potential to stoke violence in the state for years to come. This is why senior government functionaries have invested their energies in trying to convince people to return looted arms, but more needs to be done. The FIRs themselves, while narrating the incidents of loot, don’t identify a single perpetrator. This is bound to make the job of the investigators tougher.
Ultimately, peace cannot return to the state until violence stops. And violence will not stop in the absence of strong political will, including fixing accountability with the state government, which must shoulder some of the responsibility for the continuing clashes. In a state where tensions have wrenched communities apart since May 3 , the peace-building process will need to be slow, deliberate, impartial and sincere. It will need to be preceded by the authorities gaining a grip on the law-and-order situation. This will need tough calls to be made. The sooner, the better.
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