Manipur on the boil again

A drone attack by militants on Manipur’s Koutruk village on September 1 marks a phase of escalation of conflict after a relative lull of four months.

“She had bought a new phanek (sarong), along with her friends, with the money they earned from working in a nearby field. Wearing it, she had gone to her maternal home with her daughter for a feast,” said Sushil Ningthoujam, brother-in-law of Ngangbam Surbala from Phayeng, a village in Imphal West district of Manipur. It was the last phanek Surbala (31) would wear and the last feast she would ever attend.

She died on September 1 when alleged Kuki militants attacked Koutruk, a Meitei village located at a distance of about 10 kilometres from Phayeng, near the borders of Imphal West and the Kuki-Zomi-majority Kangpokpi districts. The militants used high-tech drones to launch numerous rocket-propelled grenades, killing Surbala and another villager and injuring 10 others, including Surbala’s 8-year-old daughter, and two police personnel. 

The attack marks a new phase in the ongoing conflict in Manipur that has rendered 67,000 people homeless (accounting for 97 per cent of displacement in South Asia), and claimed more than 226 lives, with 1,500 injured and 28 missing, since its beginning in May 2023. The recent incident proves that even after 16 months, Manipur remains politically unstable. Moreover, it is crippled economically, with high inflation and a 19.7 per cent unemployment rate among the State’s youth. 

On September 1, Manipur Police posted on X:“While drone bombs have commonly been used in general warfares, this recent deployment of drones to deploy explosives against security forces and the civilians marks a significant escalation. The involvement of highly trained professionals, possibly with technical expertise and support, cannot be ruled out. Authorities are closely monitoring the situation, and the police are prepared to respond to any contingency that may arise.” 

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But, on September 2, there was another attack in neighbouring Senjam Chirang village. It left three villagers injured.

The use of drones in the attack will probably inspire the other side to use similar technology in the future, leading to further damage. While experts claim that drone jammers are in use in Manipur, the Koutruk episode points to a grave security lapse. “Village volunteers and security personnel would often fly their drones to check enemy movement or as a recce before attacks. The drone flights are usually foiled by signal jammers, effectively preventing escalation,” a village volunteer told Frontline. “However, it seems that this time the jammers were either not working or were intentionally switched off,” he said.  

Koutruk, a hotspot of violence in the early stages of the conflict, has remained heavily guarded by village volunteers and State security forces. Constant firing in this foothill area caused most residents to shift to relief camps. However, in the last four months, with cases of firings and bombings in Manipur becoming almost nil, villagers were slowly returning home. 

Most of the villagers here are farmers and labourers, belonging to low-income groups. Their lives have been altered by the conflict, with farmers being forced to stop work in the fields for fear of being ambushed. On the one hand, their incomes have come down, and on the other, the prices of daily commodities are rising steadily. They are desperate to get back to their normal lives.  

On the morning of September 1, Koutruk was on high alert after receiving intelligence about the movement of suspected Kuki militants in Bethel, a neighbouring village. At around 2:30 pm, the first shot came, followed by retaliation. The initial half an hour of the confrontation was purely a gunfight until three drones were noticed over Koutruk. “The drones started pounding bombs with precision at the bunkers and we had to retreat as we had no means to combat airpower,” a senior police official, who was on duty, told Frontline. The bombings started around 3 pm and continued till 7:30 pm. 

As the police retreated, attackers barged into Koutruk and burnt down five houses, including the half-finished house where the police were staying, vehicles, and borewell-drilling machines of the Public Health and Engineering Department that had been brought in recently to create new water sources. After intense bouts of gunfight between the militants and the police, the security personnel were able reclaim lost ground before dawn-break. But the damage had been done by that time. 

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Brothers Thangjam Bashan, 33, and Thangjam Kapil, 29, owned two of the houses that were set on fire. They lost everything, including clothes, utensils, certificates, money, jewellery, and furniture. “I do not know how my family will survive,” said Thangjam Leima, aunt to the brothers, and secretary of Meirapaibi Apunba Nupi Lup of Koutruk. Now all that remains of the houses, the result of years of labour, are charred tin sheets and charcoal. 

The recent attacks have shattered the illusion of normalcy and panicked villagers. With renewed fear building up among the residents, it is up to the police to restore confidence by stepping up security in the volatile border areas.

Ningthoujam Victor is a freelance photojournalist working on conflicts, environmental issues, and the fishing community of Manipur.