MANIPUR EXTREMIST -VALLEY-BASED INSURGENT GROUPS

The extremist groups of Manipur operating from their hideouts across the International Border are increasingly feeling the heat of the civil war in adjoining Myanmar.
Officials of the security forces manning the India-Myanmar border said the once-tolerant local people have been turning on the members of extremist groups in Manipur, specifically the Valley-Based Insurgent Groups (VBIGs) over the past few months.
It is a term for groups comprising people from the Imphal Valley.
The pressure on the VBIGs is learnt to have increased since December 28, 2022, when three pro-democracy groups joined hands to ambush and kill seven members of the Shanni Nationalities Army (Red), a Burmese militia aligned with the Myanmar Army.
The ambush took place between Myothit and Mintha on the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road that Border Roads Organisation built more than a decade ago.
The three pro-democracy outfits that carried out the ambush are the 1 Battalion of the People’s Democratic Force of the Tamu region near Manipur’s border town Moreh, the Kuki National Army (Burma) and the Kabaw Chin National Defence Force.
“These incidents between the pro-democracy forces and the Myanmar Army are a fallout of the civil war. These are messages from the natives that foreign forces trying to obstruct their fight for democracy are no longer welcome,” an officer of a paramilitary force said

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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