How Last-Minute Breakthrough Came In Manipur Hostage Negotiations

Imphal/New Delhi:

The 11 members of the Kuki tribes who were released from Sajiwa jail in Manipur’s capital Imphal today were already granted bail, and were set to be released, police sources said. However, logistical issues such as arranging a security escort to send them home to Kuki-dominant Churachandpur and Kangpokpi amid the law and order situation in Manipur led to delay, they said, adding it was a routine, procedural delay that can happen anywhere depending on external factors.

These 11 men are accused in different cases including sex assault, murder, theft and drug trafficking under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The Kangpokpi-based Kuki civil society organisation Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) has said the release of the 11 men were one of the two conditions placed by their village defence volunteers if two men from the Meitei community being held hostage since September 27 were to be freed.

No Convicts Released

However, no convict or undertrial who has been denied bail has been released. Any demand to release a convict serving sentence in jail in exchange for hostages would be terrorism, sources said.

Today’s development ensured the two men from the Meitei community returned home, and the 11 men from the Kuki tribes who were granted bail and served their undertrial time also went home, since holding anyone longer than is allowed by the law despite getting bail is not right, sources said.

The two men, Oinam Thoithoi Singh and Thokchom Thoithoiba Singh, had accompanied another man from the Meitei community while going to an Assam Rifles camp to attend the recruitment test for general duty constable. They relied on Google Maps and inadvertently entered a Kuki-dominated village in Kangpokpi, the third man, Ningombam Johnson Singh, who was released earlier had said in a video statement.

The three men were first stopped by a group of women who were on watch duty at the sensitive area or “buffer zone”, after which they were handed over to armed village defence volunteers of the Kuki tribes, Johnson had said after he was released days ago.

According to top sources who tracked the developments closely, the matter got complicated when a Kuki militant group in Kangpokpi asked the village volunteers to release the two men, but a civil society group raised concerns over facing public anger in releasing the two Meitei men immediately. Fake posts on social media had by then appeared alleging the two men belonged to the Meitei volunteer group Arambai Tenggol, sources said, adding this made it more difficult for the Kuki civil society group and the village volunteers to release the two men without the risk of facing protests by the public.

Exploring Solutions

Sources said that in exploring a solution, the Kuki militant group decided to use the hostages to demand the release of jailed activist and terror accused Mark T Haokip, whose default bail by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court was cancelled by the Manipur High Court, citing a Supreme Court order from May 2023 in a similar case in Punjab.

The negotiators, however, came down hard with a hammer on the militant group’s demand as any talk of exchange of the jailed terror accused with the two civilian hostages would have been outright terrorism, sources said.

Mark Haokip’s parents, too, in two separate statements raised alarm over reports that their son’s name was being thrown around in a hostage exchange negotiation. His parents asked the public not to sensationalise the issue as Mark Haokip’s arrest was pending in court, and the militant group’s action without his knowledge would only worsen his case.

“We appeal to all people and communities not to sensationalise the situation and add to our mental agony, but rather uphold and trust the rule of law,” Mark Haokip’s father M Limkhosei Haokip had said in a statement on Wednesday.

With action against the insurgent group and everyone involved in keeping the two hostages becoming a near reality, an ultimatum was served to the captors, sources said. They said the breakthrough came after the militant group finally withdrew the demand for freeing Mark Haokip when it became clear their demand would not be met.

To make a fair exchange, the 11 men of the Kuki tribes – who were already waiting to be released from the Imphal jail after being granted bail – were identified, sources said, adding CoTU finally ensured a peaceful handover of the two Meitei men and received the 11 men.

Kangpokpi is the turf of the Kuki National Front (KNF), headed by ST Thangboi Kipgen, sources told NDTV. The KNF is one of the over two dozen Kuki-Zo militant groups that have signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement, which the Manipur government has been demanding to be scrapped. The SoO agreement’s last renewal deadline was in February this year.

During the initial negotiations with the hostage-takers, sources in Kangpokpi district had told NDTV on phone the kidnappers were not village defence volunteers of the Kuki tribes who guard the sensitive area or “buffer zone” in the district 45 km from the state capital Imphal. The volunteers have got nothing to do with Mark Haokip, the sources had said, requesting anonymity, and warned against linking them with the issue.

“The demand to free Mark Haokip by the Kuki militant group seemed to have been buried quietly when it became clear the village defence volunteers were not involved in this matter,” a source in Kangpokpi with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV on phone.

Mark Haokip is a popular figure among proponents of the Kuki nation theory, and the militant group’s leadership would have gained huge public support if they were successful in getting the hostage swap done, sources said.

CoTU today said their efforts were maligned by valley-based local media and the public in Imphal, who accused the Kuki civil society group of playing a part in the hostage crisis.

CoTU Says Its Good Efforts Maligned

“… CoTU is hard pressed to make this press statement with regards to the incident that happened on September 27, wherein three youths from Imphal valley were detained by our village volunteers. CoTU has been spearheading the release of these detainees. However, our efforts were maligned by valley-based local media and the public in Imphal, saying that CoTU is a part of this. But we would like to reiterate that after intervening, we were able to release one person on the day itself,” CoTU spokesperson Ng Lun Kipgen said in a video statement today.

“However, for the other two, our village volunteers made some conditions, which took us time because the first discussion with the DGP of Manipur was on September 29. Because of him being DGP of a state, our negotiation could not materialise. The first demand was the transfer of all (Kuki-Zo) jail inmates from Imphal to Kuki-Zo dominated area, that is Churachandpur. Second was the establishment of a police station in Phailengmong area,” Mr Kipgen said.

“… The two youths were released today, and as per the agreement, 11 people who were in Imphal jail were received in this church compound in Saparmeina,” Mr Kipgen said.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.