Worried over the increasing instances of former insurgents taking up arms once again, the Manipur government is planning to review the surrender policy in consultation with the Union Home Ministry.
Highly placed sources said that paper works are being prepared to pinpoint where the surrender and rehabilitation policies had gone wrong.
On Monday a former insurgent of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak, an outlawed outfit of Manipur, was critically wounded when a bomb was exploded at Dimapur in Nagaland. Two of his accomplices, probably former rebels, escaped. The injured person, Ojit Longjam, had surrendered in 2011 under the provisions of the suspension of operations.
On Tuesday the Manipur police shot dead two ranking insurgents in an ‘encounter’ in Bishnupur district. The dead insurgents were identified as Biren Puyam and Tiken Keithellakpam, home secretary and assistant finance secretary of the United Revolutionary Front (URF) respectively. The URF’s pro-talk group had come out and joined the national mainstream after signing the suspension of operations. They were lodged at a designated camp at Loitam Khunnou located near the Assam Rifles camp. Like other former insurgents of some outfits who had come overground, this group was disillusioned. Talks were never held with them.
Since the charges against them were not withdrawn even after coming overground under the liberalised surrender policy, most of them had to appear before the NIA court in Guwahati every now and then.
