A ban on eight rebel groups in Manipur has been extended by the government for five more years for their continued involvement in unlawful and violent activities, the Home Ministry said Tuesday.
The groups have openly declared their objectives of formation of an independent Manipur by secession from India, employing and engaging in armed means to achieve their goal besides attacking security forces, police and government employees, it said.
The organisations banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act are (i) Peoples' Liberation Army generally known as PLA and its political wing, (ii) Revolutionary Peoples' Front (RPF), (iii) United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing Manipur Peoples' Army (MPA), (iv) Peoples' Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and its armed wing, 'Red Army', (v) Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, also called 'Red Army', (vi) Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), (vii) the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and (viii) Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK), a home ministry notification said.
The five-year ban on all these groups lapsed recently, thus necessitating declaring them outlawed for a fresh spell of five years, a home ministry official said.
This is a important move as the rebel groups movement into Manipur -- and, indeed, other theatres of the Northeast -- was also inevitable in terms of the repeatedly articulated strategy of the Maoists. The Maoist Party Programme document unambiguously expresses its solidarity with armed militant movements in other parts of the country including the Northeast.
(With inputs from PTI)
