The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a suspect from Churachandpur.
Who was allegedly part of a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh based leadership of terror outfits to wage war against India by exploiting the current ethnic unrest in Manipur, the agency said on Saturday.
The accused, identified as Seiminlun Gangte, was taken into custody on Saturday.
The federal anti-terror probe agency had registered a suo motu on July 19 to probe the conspiracy.
“Investigation revealed that Myanmar and Bangladesh based militant groups have entered into a conspiracy with a section of militant leaders in India to indulge in incidents of violence with an intention to drive a wedge between different ethnic groups and to wage war against the government of India.
And for this purpose, the aforementioned leadership have been providing funds to procure arms, ammunition and other types of terrorist hardware which are being sourced both, from across the border, as well as from other terrorist outfits active in north eastern states of India to stoke the current ethnic strife in Manipur,” the agency said in a statement.
Gangte, it said, has been brought to Delhi and will be produced before a court here.
His arrest comes days after the agency took into custody a trained militant cadre – Moirangthem Anand Singh in the same case. Singh was arrested on September 24 and brought to Delhi as well. Singh was originally arrested by the Manipur Police on September 16 along with four others for allegedly wearing camouflaged uniforms and possessing an INSAS rifle, an SLR, two .303 rifles and multiple magazines. He is a former cadre of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur.
Clashes in Manipur first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after tribal groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community.
Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders. The clashes have virtually partitioned the state between the dominant Meitei community that lives in the plains and constitutes 53% of the state’s population, and the tribal Kuki group, which lives in the hill districts and makes up 16% of the state. At least 175 people have died and another 50,000 displaced.