“Doctored videos, don’t belong to North East”: Assam Rifles Director General PC Nair on Manipur

Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], July 27 (ANI): Amid the ongoing violence in Manipur, Assam Rifles Director General Lt General PC Nair said that most of the videos depicting alleged attrocities in Manipur are “doctored” and do not even belong to the North-East.

“If videos are going around, these are doctored videos. I can tell you I have about 30 to 40 videos which have been circulating. They don’t even belong to the northeast. They are from Myanmar, they are from….Some of them are from the Rohingya region,” Nair said.

The DG said that people having “hidden agenda” are trying to show that security forces are engaged in alleged atrocities only to “create trouble” in the region.

“But some people who have a hidden agenda to create trouble here are doctoring that and showing them as security forces acting against people,” Nair said.

Further speaking on the circulated videos, the DG said that parts of the actual incident are being clipped and shown to spread a certain narrative.

“Yes, there have been certain other instances where videos of Manipur have been shown. But amongst those videos also, it is only part of the incident. Let’s say an incident has happened for about five to ten minutes. Let’s say there are people been stopped and Assam Riffle is trying to stop them or whatever. In these videos that are being propagated, they only show part clippings which makes the story very different,” Nair said.

“Unless you see the entire video, unless you see the complete facts, you will tend to get carried away by what is coming. And that is precisely what is happening. Part of the story, part of the photograph, and part of the videos are what are being made and shown on the media to drive a certain agenda which is wrong…,” he added.

The Assam Rifles DG said that the security situation in the northeast cannot be looked at in isolation and one needs to look at the situation in the adjacent neighbouring countries as well.

The Lt General underlined that if something untoward happens in any of the neigbouring countries, especially the bordering areas, it will also leave its impact in the north-eastern states because of the common land borders and shared ethnicity.

“When you look at the security situation in the North East you also have to look at the security situation in the adjacent neighbouring countries. In some way or the other, the North Eat shares border with Bhutan, Myanmar, China and Bangladesh. And Nepal of course, a little off. If something happens in any of these countries, particularly in the bordering areas there will be an impact because of the common enthnicity that is shared,” Nair said in an exclusive interview with ANI on Saturday.

Nair said that while Bangladesh is going through a minor problem at present, the larger problem lies at Myanmar ever since the ruling dispensation changed in the country.

“So if you look at it currently, Bangladesh has a small problem now which I am sure they will be able to resolve. But the larger problem lies in Myanmar. Ever since the dispensation changed in Myanmar there has been huge impact on the North East in terms of movement of insurgent groups, contraband, weapons. So those are surely impacted,” the Assam Rifles Director General said.

Nair also pointed out that the problems in Manipur also has a “spillover effect” in the neighbouring states in the North East.

“Added to that is the current situation in Manipur since May 3 last year, the last 16-17 months. That has also impacted. Because whatever happens in Manipur does not get restricted to Manipur. Obviously there is a propensity of that having a spillover effect in the neighbouring states also,” the Director General said.

Speaking about the overall security situation in the North East, the Assam Rifles DG said, “If you ask about the overall security situation, it is all okay. There is nothing great in terms of insurgency. There are cases in terms of move of contrabands, move of militants to the camps which are across, also coming this side. These kind of things have been happening for a long period of time. It is nothing alarming.”

On the ongoing problems in Manipur, Nair said that the trouble was brewing between both the communities in the state for 7-8 months, before the final “spark” which triggered on May 3 last year.

“In terms of what is happening in Manipur, we all are aware. There are two communities which are at loggerheads. There has some sense of disquiet among themselves in the last few years. It is not that it got suddenly triggered on May 3 last year. Ther were undercurrents. My estimate is it was there for the last 7-8 years, possibly even more. All it needed was a spark which happened on May 3,” the DG said.

Nair highlighted that Assam Rifles was the first force to be deployed in the region ever since the conflict broke out last year.

“Ever since this incident happened on May 3, Assam Rifles was the first force to be deployed. Immediately more than 100 columns of us got deployed. In a day or two, Indian army columns also came in additionally, it got built up to about 140-150 columns. And then we have the other Paramilitary forces and the CAPF coming in,” the DG said.

Dismissing rumours that the Assam Rifles have been partial towards a particular community while containing the situation, the Director General described them to be “preposterous”.

“From the first day, May 3 itself, Assam Rifles has maintained an absolutely neutral stand. All the narratives that have been coming are all agenda driven. It makes me laugh when I read some of these stupid reports that come that Assam Rifles is favouring one community, not favouring the other, these are nothing but rumours, falsehood, preposterous. There is no background to this,” Nair said.

The DG pointed out that most of the arms confiscated, bunkers destroyed, people caught and apprehended were from the Kuki doiminated areas.

“If I count the number of weapons that we have confiscated today, they are more from the Kuki dominated areas. If I talk about the bunkers that have destroyed, again more of them have been destroyed in the Kuki dominated areas. The only soldier of Assam Rifles who was killed in action was in a Kuki area. Similarly if I look at how many people have been caught, apprehended, most of them are the Kukis. To call us biassed being biased towards a particular community is absolutely wrong,” Nair said.

The DG also said that second highest number of soldiers in the Assam Rifles are from Manipur and they belong to both the communities.

“Look at my force, large number of people, soldiers of Assam Rifles are from North Eastern region. Within the North East maximim of them are from Assam and the second highest is from Manipur. and in Manipur we have the soldiers from both communities,” Nair said.

The Lt General also highlighted that if they had been partial towards one community in Manipur at the cost of the other, it would have led to a mutiny in the force.

“Today the minds of both the communities are very polarized in Manipur. They are at loggerheads. I hope this is just a temporary phase. If we try to be partial to one community at the cost of other, do you think our soldiers will take it. Will there not be any mutiny in my force? Has anything like this happened in the last 17 months? No. Nothing like this has happened,” he said.

On the fight against illegal drugs in the North Eastern region, the DG said that the Assam Rifles have seized contraband worth more than Rs 3600 crore in the last three years.

“Along with weapons, there is also an issue of drugs. There is a lot of contraband that has been moving in the North East and we have been constantly at it with out border guarding role. Our men have operating day and night, our offfice have been tirelessly handling this. In 2022, we had caught contraband worth Rs 820 crore, in 2023 we caught contraband worth Rs 1730 crore and this year we are already touching Rs 1120 crore. When I say contraband, 90-95 percent is drugs…There has been a spurt of smuggling,” the Assam Rifles DG said.

The Assam Rifles DG also said that, some insurgent groups are also involved in the illegal narcotics trade.

“In the past decades, most of the heroin and opium products were made in either Afghanistan or in the so-called golden triangle. But since March last year, the Taliban has gone hammer and tongs against the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, resulting in lots of cultivation shifting towards the so-called golden triangle…This is easy money. There has always been a connection between not just the Indian Indian insurgents, but also the factions in Myanmar. There are 35 major militant groups that are fighting against Myanmar Army and all of them have a nexus. And those insurgents have a connect with insurgents of our country,” Lt General PC Nair said.

The DG further said that though insurgency exists in a “low scale” at present, weapons smuggling remains an issue.

“The current insurgency in North East is quite low scale. The numbers of insurgents have grossly reduced, the camps that used to be there in Bangladesh, now there are hardly any. In Myanmar there are far and few between. But some are caught up in internal fighting there. In terms of numbers, there is nothing alarming. So far as weapon smuggling, yes, it is an issue. There are no specifics..There is role of our neighbour who is in some way involved in supplying weapons which come routed through Myanmar,” he added.