By Sumon K Chakrabarti
MANIPUR SHOCKER: Human rights abuse has become a way of life in insurgency-hit Manipur. New Delhi, Feb 1 : An inquiry into the killing of the nephew of former Manipur chief minister R K Joychandra has opened a can of worms. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has found more than 100 fake encounters that Manipur's government wanted to hide from the country. In insurgency-ridden Manipur, human rights abuse has become a way of life and for the first time, in an unprecedented move, the NHRChas slammed the state government for hiding a cycle of violence unleashed by the security forces.
NHRC has directed Ibobi Singh's government to report about 111 cases of fake encounter killings by the police, killings which include the nephew of a former chief minister of the state.
Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights, Suhas Chakma, said, “The police and the armed forces can do anything, they can kill in cold blood and get away. It is also precisely because the state government whenever they order an inquiry, whether it is judicial or magisterial inquiry, the reports are never made public.”
Manipur's police force was exposed last year when a Manipuri youth was killed in an alleged fake encounter in an Imphal market complex by police commandos, forcing widespread outrage and a subsequent investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation
Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights, Suhas Chakma said, “Usually the police and the armed forces conduct joint operations and because they conduct joint operations, there is a perception that since the armed forces are covered under the Armed Forces Special Power Act, they are not required to report to the NHRC.”
Police in Manipur have been accused of increasingly trying to get recognition and promotion by hook or by crook, including extra-judicial killings of suspected insurgents.
With the NHRC report, the state government has to answer several uncomfortable questions…answers that can even expose the high and the mighty in the state.
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