From the itself, Assam Rifles has maintained a neutral stance in Manipur, where ethnic violence began in May 2023, said the force's Director General Lieutenant General PC Nair.
He said that the rumours of Assam Riffles being bias towards one community in the Manipur violence are "preposterous" and "agenda-driven narratives". He said reading that Assam Riffles is favouring one community and not the other, makes him laugh.
"From the first day, that is from the 3 May itself, Assam Rifle has maintained a neutral stand (in Manipur). So all these narratives that have been coming are agenda-driven. It makes me laugh when I read some of these stupid reports stating that the Assam riffle is favouring one community, not favouring the other," PC Nair said.
He further said, "These are nothing but rumours, falsehoods, preposterous. There is no background to this and I can substantiate it with statistics...to call us being biased towards a particular community is wrong."
The administrative control of the Assam Rifles is with the Ministry of Home Affairs while the operational control is with the Army.
The AR protects the 1,600-km-long Indo-Myanmar border, of which around 400 km is situated in Manipur. It is also a dual-role force as it is the primary counter-insurgency force in north-east state.
Lt General PC Nair's remarks comes days after former BSE Additional Director General (ADG) PK Mishra attributed the ineffectiveness of the central forces' intervention in Manipur to a massive failure of command and control coordination.
Notably, the Meitei community had been fighting with the Kuki tribe in Manipur since May 2023. While Meiteis classified as general category want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes, the Kukis want a separation administration from Manipur.
Mishra had told News9 that one paramilitary force should be shifted out of Maniur, adding that, "I can tell you it involves shifting of -- I repeat very strongly -- shifting of one paramilitary force from Manipur."
"Definitely it will come to an end... One force has to go from there. They have been there for so many year," he added.
Commenting on the purported videos showing Assam Riffles in a bad light during ops in Manipur, Lt General PC Nair said these are "doctored videos".
"I can tell you I have about 30 to 40 videos which have been circulating. Don't even belong to the northeast. They are from Myanmar, they are from other places. Some of them are from the Rohingya 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 told news agency ANI.
"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 trying to stop them or whatever. In these videos that are being propagated, they only show part clippings which makes the story very different," he added.
He said that unless someone sees the entire video, they 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 to drive a certain agenda which is wrong," Nair said.
In January this year, several videos of an intense stand-off between the AR and a group of insurgents in Manipur's border of Moreh had surfaced on social media. The videos raised questions over how they stopped the security forces from any movement in the area which was very close to Myanmar.
"When you look at the security situation in the northeast, you also have to look at the situation in the neighbouring countries adjacent in some way or the other. The northeast itself shares borders with Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Bangladesh, and Nepal, of course, a little off beyond the sitting recorder. But the point I am trying to make is, that if there is something happens in any of these countries, particularly in the bordering areas, there will be an impact here also because of the common land borders, and the common ethnicity that is shared," Lt General Nair told ANI.
Nair further said, "Whatever happens in Manipur doesn't get restricted to Manipur. There is a propensity of that having a spillover effect in the neighbouring states also. So if you ask me in one line as to what is the overall security situation, it is quite okay."
"Nothing great. In terms of insurgency, yes, there are cases in terms of the move of contrabands, cases of the move of militants to the camps... So these kinds of things have been happening for long periods," the Lt General added.
