In the last week of October, Assam Rifles personnel posted in Manipur apprehended a cadre of banned insurgent group PREPAK (Pro) from Laijang, a small village in Chandel, on the Indo-Myanmar border and recovered an INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifle from his possession.
PREPAK (Pro) or Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Progressive) is one of the several valley-based insurgent groups (VBIGs). According to security agencies in the state, members of many such groups are currently living across the border in Myanmar’s Tamu. They added that the VBIGs, primarily comprising Meiteis, are known to have the protection of the Myanmar military that took over the elected government in the country in a coup in 2021.
Senior officials in security agencies told ThePrint that the October incident did not raise many eyebrows as there is nothing new about the cadres of mentioned VBIGs living in Myanmar getting caught.
But what bothered them was the fact that the INSAS rifle recovered from the insurgent was part of the weaponry looted from police armouries in the valley in the aftermath of the violence that broke out in the state last May. “The security forces were able to locate from where the rifle came with the registration number mentioned on the weapon,” an official said.
This, sources in the security establishment said, is an indicator that the weapons looted from the armouries are being openly sold in the black market and have landed in the hands of insurgents operating from across the border.
“Sale and purchase of looted weapons has become a menace in Manipur. So much so that weapons are now landing up with insurgents across the border. Recovery of a police weapon, looted from Imphal, from an insurgent living in Myanmar is a clear indicator of how weapons are openly being sold,” a source said.
Four insurgents, security officials told ThePrint, were involved in an encounter with Myanmar’s People’s Defence Force (PDF) and Kuki National Force (Burmese)—both of whom are fighting against the Myanmar military—at Lalim, near the border on the Myanmar side.
While three of the group cadres were shot dead in the encounter, one of them was captured and subsequently handed over by the villagers on the Myanmar side to Assam Rifles at Laijang, which then handed him over to Manipur Police. The ones who were killed also had INSAS rifles in their possession.
This was not a one-off incident of recovery of looted weapons from insurgents from across the border or from outside Imphal. Over the last six-seven months, there have been close to half-a-dozen such instances, where the recovered weapons were traced back to Manipur Police armouries.
Even in the Jiribam incident of 11 November, where ten armed Kuki “militants” were killed in “retaliatory firing” after they attacked security forces, ten weapons recovered from them were found to be the ones looted from police armouries in Imphal.
“Now, one would ask how the weapons looted by Meiteis in the valley land up with insurgents in the hills? This is what has been happening. The sale of weapons is free for all,” a source said.
A senior security official, who did not want to be named, said, “We are increasingly coming across such instances, where for monetary gains, weapons that were looted mainly from valley-based police armouries and stations were sold off—not just outside the valley, but across the border, too.”
The official added that it has become a matter of concern for security agencies as it is difficult to recover looted weapons when there is little information about where all the weapons have been sold and who has access to them. “According to our information, the INSAS rifles are being sold for anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.”
INSAS is a family of infantry arms manufactured by the Ordinance Factories Board.
‘Weapons sold for monetary gains’
According to security officials, the intention of those who looted the weapons in the valley could be to make monetary gains by selling them. With an increase in demand for weapons, the business is flourishing in the state.
Another official told, “Because of the violence, economic activities have taken a hit in the state. Selling off the looted weapons has become a good source of income.”
Approximately 6,000 firearms were looted from police armouries and stations in the aftermath of the violence that started on 3 May, 2023, a senior Manipur police officer told in Imphal on the condition of anonymity. “Of this, the majority of the weapons were looted in the valley.”
After violence broke out, the Meiteis in the valley raided police armouries in Imphal to loot weapons and arms, claiming that they were meant for self-defence.
So far, the police have recovered close to 3,000 firearms, with a majority of the 6.64 lakh ammunition looted still untraceable.
The looted weapons include 215 AK 47s, 250 machine guns, 1,350 Self Loading Rifles (SLR), 1,060 .303 rifles, 825 INSAS rifles, 570 carbines and 220 pistols, data from Manipur Police shows. Of these, .303 rifles and INSAS are the most common ones to be sold.
Another source in the security establishment also revealed that among the weapons recovered by the police are not just those that were looted from the armouries, but also sophisticated high calibre ones, including the US-made M-16, that have been arranged by the insurgents and local residents from outside.
This, the source said, makes the recovery even more difficult as there are too many weapons doing the rounds in Manipur now, exacerbating the cycle of violence. “If we have recovered 3,000 weapons, out of these at least 1,000 are those that are not police weapons looted from armouries. Of these 35-40 are high calibre weapons that were not stolen from the armouries. This indicates that arms are also coming in from across the border and are readily available for sale.”
The security official quoted above said that many of the Meiteis, who had looted the weapons, realised after sometime that they could make a quick buck by selling them off after the initial bout of violence. “We have reasons to believe that many of them have sold off their looted weapons to Meitei Pangals, who are Muslims, and the Nagas. The two in turn are selling the arms to insurgents outside the Valley and Myanmar-based rival groups.”
The official added that Assam Rifles personnel recently caught some Meitei Pangals near Bishnupur with looted weapons.
“Black marketing of the looted weapons is rampant,” the official said, adding that the Meiteis are not selling it directly. “They are selling it to the Nagas and Pangals, who are selling it further. This has posed a serious challenge for security agencies,” the official added.
ThePrint reached out to Rajiv Singh, director general of Manipur Police for a comment via call, but he was unavailable. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
Back in January, too, security officials in Imphal had told that slow recovery of arms looted during the violence and their availability in the black market are giving the agencies a big headache. They had said that lack of intelligence inputs from local residents and sale of looted weapons were among the key reasons for failure of the police and security forces to make any substantial recovery.
“…Not that there was any dearth of weapons here earlier, as a lot of it came from across the border as well, but since the demand is more, black marketing of weapons has also become a challenge,” an intelligence source had claimed.
The Manipur Police, along with security forces, have been conducting combing operations to recover the looted weapons, but the results have not been promising.
Manipur has been witnessing ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities since May last year, following a solidarity march called by the All-Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur to oppose the demand to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the non-tribal Meitei community. The ongoing violence has claimed over 200 lives and displaced over 50,000 people, according to police data.
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