History
The People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) was formed under the leadership of R.K. Tulachandra on October 9, 1977. Kangleipak is the ancient name of Manipur. A series of dacoities and ambushes committed in 1978 and 1979 were also attributed to PREPAK. The object was to snatch arms from the security forces and collect money for purchasing arms. Their arsenal was built up by looting arms from the police and para-military forces and buying from the poorly paid Myanmarese soldiers deployed across India's borders. In 1980 a small group split off from PREPAK to form the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). On November 12, 1985, the founder and chairman of PREPAK R.K. Tulachandra was killed in a shootout in Kabowakching area, 14 km. south of Imphal. Following his death, S. Wanglen became the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of PREPAK. The organisation's General Secretary, Lumbeban Masunga was killed on May 19, 1993. In 1980s and in early 1990s, many cadres were killed in factional clashes. The fraction-riddled party was transformed into a well organised and trained force in the late 1990s. In this process PREPAK leader late Urrikhinbam Sarat alias Meiraba played a crucial role.
In the early nineties, PREPAK along with other Meitei militant organization launched a social reformation campaign to eradicate the social crimes. It had given punishment against those persons involved in rape cases. The party also took action against drug users, drug peddlers and smashes alcohol vendors in an attempt to bring a social change in Manipur.
On safeguarding Manipur's territorial integrity, PREPAK's Defence Secretary Chinglemba Mangang declared on October 17, 2003 that the MPLF (a conglomeration of three militants groups - UNLF, RPF and PREPAK) was fully prepared to extend all possible help, including "military support" to the Manipuri peoples' fight against any threat to their territory.
Objective
Claiming to be the "most genuine revolutionary groups" in Manipur, the PREPAK's demand is the establishment of an independent state of Manipur.
Command Structure
PREPAK has a well-defined command structure. The Central Committee of the party is the highest decision making body and all political and military decisions are made by it. The political wing is headed by a Chairman. The armed wing of the outfit is called the Red Army and is under the direct control of a Commander-in-Chief. For the convenience of operation, it has set up district commands. A district command is headed by a district commander and includes in its ranks lieutenants, sergeants major, sergeants, corporals, and lance corporals. A district command is further divided into units. A women's wing has been set up and work mainly in organizational activities.
Leaders
Presently, the post of Chairman is vacant. Vice-Chairman is Naba and Subhash @ Paliba is the General Secretary. Tajila is the Commander-in- Chief. Other Secretaries are Home, Defence, Finance, Organisation and Publicity and Propaganda. Chinglemba Mangang is the Defence Secretary and Chief of Army staff of PREPAK.
Achamba was the Chairman of the party but he was removed from the party some time back. The party has not made public about his removal. This is the information I which got from some party members. However, they to divulge the reasons for his removal.
Strength
According to web site, the South Asian Terrorism Portal, it has about 200 fighters. But sources closed to the rebel group claimed that it has more than 500 committed fighters. It is believed that PREPAK has bought a wide range of weapons including AK - series, rocket launchers, mortars, snipers, explosives etc. from the South Asian markets. Of late, PREPAK has become a force to reckon with. It has launched a serious of operations against Indian security forces alone and with coordination with other militant groups like United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and Revolutionary People's Front (RPF).
Areas of Operation
In the 80s PREPAK's area of operation was largely confined to the Imphal valley. However, its area of activities gradually expanded to the southern hilly parts of Manipur and its contiguous areas straddle along Mizoram and Assam. From the early 90s PREPAK has been operating in Chandel district of Manipur, in coordination with other militant groups such as RPF, UNLF and with support from other tribal rebel groups like Kuki National Front (KNF), and Zomi Defence Volunteers (ZDV). PREPAK is also reported to carry out attacks in certain areas of Mizoram and in North Tripura.
Popular Support
PREPAK's support base comes from the dominant Meitei community. It has strong support base in the four valley districts - Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishenpur - of Manipur.
Funding
PREPAK's main source of income used to come from extortion from businessmen, contractors, and employees of the state government, but of late the party has stopped extortion from the people. According to a decision taken in 1998, the party has stopped extortion of money from individuals. In a press release to the local newspaper Sangai Express on 17 June 2004, PREPAK claimed that there was no change in the decision. The PREPAK, which earlier collected a monthly tax of 1 to 2 per cent depending on the salary of the employees, declared along with UNLF and RPF in January 2002 that the party would no longer collect money from the government employees from 15 January. Since then PREPAK along with the UNLF and RPF has stopped collecting monthly tax from government employees. The group also receives financial support from its sympathisers. So far there has been no report of PREPAK's involvement in drug smuggling to finance its party activities.
Training Camps
In Manipur, its cadres are given training in two different areas. The General Headquarters (GHQs) of the rebel group is located in Sajik Tampak area of Chandel district. So far many batches of PREPAK cadres had received guerrilla warfare training in the thick jungles of the district. In the bordering Churachanpur district, it is reported that PREPAK has also set up training camps. Besides, PREPAK also receives military training in Nagaland-Myanmar border with support from NSCN (Khaplang).
Activities
Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the two banned outfits had decided to launch joint operations from December 2003. General Secretary of PREPAK, Paliba, announced the decision to launch joint operations at a function held to observe the MPLF's "national black day" on October 15, 2003.
PREPAK along with other militant groups operating in northeast had banned screening of Hindi films from 15 November 2003. It considers Hindi movies as a threat to the socio-cultural values of the people of the region. In a joint press release on August 7, 2003 militants groups appealed to all concerned, particularly cinema hall owners, cable TV operators and producers and directors of regional films, to comply with this decision in the larger interest of the Region as a whole. The press release stated Arunachal Pradesh as a glaring example where Hindi has been imposed to become almost a local language. PREPAK perceive this as a direct threat that must be resisted.
Casualties
From 1999 to 2003, Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state security forces killed 26 cadres of PREPAK. During this period, 22 PREPAK rebels were arrested from various places of the state, while PREPAK killed 2 security forces and injured 8 personnel in various attacks launched against the Indian security forces. Seven civilian casualties were also reported in encounters between PREPAK and security forces during this period.
Internal Linkages
PREPAK has closed connections with RPF and UNLF militant groups. In 1999, PREPAK along with RPF and UNLF formed the Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF). The three constituents of MPLF have been waging an armed struggle for more than 40 years. The party has also links with Kuki militants like Kuki National Front. It has also understanding with Zomi Defence Volunteers (ZFD). Relations are being developed between PREPAK and Hmar Peoples Convention Democratic (HPCD), a Mizoram underground group.
External Linkages
In the early eighties PREPAK used to receive weapons and training in exchange for hard cash from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) of Myanmar. PREPAK has also links with Tripura's All Tripura Tribal Force (ATTF) and National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).
Publications
PREPAK publishes a monthly journal called Literature. It also publishes occasional papers and booklets.
Talks with the Government
PREPAK has ruled out talks with the Government of India unless the question of independence of Manipur is included in the agenda. The organisation rejected former Manipur Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam's cease-fire offer of March 1, 2001.
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Meitei in Manipur
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Managing Manipur
-Lt Col SD Goswami
Manipur is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity, but the state has been plagued by internecine conflicts among different ethnic groups and tribes. The state is home to the Meiteis — the major ethnic group in the state. There are about thirty different tribes inhabiting Manipur. Some of the larger tribes include Nagas, Kukis, Paites, Thadous, Simtes, Vaipheis, Raltes, Gangtes and Hmars. Unlike the Meiteis, who occupy the Imphal Valley, the other tribes inhabit the surrounding hill districts. The Meiteis constitute more than fifty per cent of the population but occupy only one-tenth of the State’s area.
The Meiteis do not belong to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category while the hill tribes enjoy certain privileges like job reservation, protection of their lands from settlement and ownership by non-STs even if they are Manipuris. This has been strongly resented by the Meiteis who perceive that the hill tribes are garnering benefits disproportionate to their population.
A view of the veterinary camp conducted by the mobile vetrinary hospital of 3 Corps
Manipur was merged fully with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949 but it became a full-fledged state more than two decades later, in 1972. This delay in granting statehood caused discontent among the Meiteis and this gave rise to secessionist tendencies among a section of the Meiteis. As a result, a number of separatist groups emerged thereafter. On November 24, 1964, Samarendra Singh founded the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) to achieve ‘independence’ and establish a socialist society. In December 1968, a breakaway group of the UNLF, led by Oinam Sudhir Kumar, established a ‘government-in-exile’ called Revolutionary Government of Manipur (RGM) with headquarters in Shylhet, in the then East Pakistan. The RGM was backed by Pakistan. The primary objective of the RGM was to ‘liberate’ Manipur through an armed struggle. The RGM maintained an elaborate underground organisation. Its administrative and civil get-up included a home minister, a finance minister, a foreign minister and an army chief of staff with Sudhir Kumar as General Secretary.
However, the Meitei secessionist movement received a serious jolt when most of its leaders were arrested during the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. The movement gradually fizzled out with rest of the leaders accepting the amnesty offered by the then Chief Minister of the State, Mr RK Dorendro Singh.
Some of the Meitei rebels, including N Bisheswar Singh, were detained in Tripura jails in the company of Naxalites-leftwing extremists. Bisheswar Singh and his associates were indoctrinated there into Maoist thought. After his release from jail, Bisheswar along with a team of 16 other Meitei rebels, left for Lasha in Tibet, on June 14, 1975, to seek Chinese assistance. The team returned to Maniupr in 1976 after receiving extensive training in guerrilla warfare. On September 25, 1978, Bisheswar formed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to achieve ‘independence’ through armed struggle.
Apart from the formation of the PLA, Manipur witnessed the growth of a number of Meitei underground organisations with similar objectives in the late seventies and early eighties: People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) led by RK Tulachandra in 1977 and Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) in 1980. Some lesser-known insurgent groups such as Pairei Liberation Front (1979), Meitei State Committee and United People’s Revolutionary Socialist party also sprang up.
Meitei insurgents stepped up their activities during 1979-81. They unleashed a violent campaign looting banks and treasuries and killing many security force personnel. The number of persons killed in acts of violence went up from two in 1978 to 14 in 1979, 36 in 1980, and 51 in 1981. In order to tackle the situation, the entire Imphal Valley was declared a disturbed area and the Armed Forces (Special powers) Act, 1958, was imposed on the Valley in September 1980. Subsequently, security forces arrested Tulachandra, the leader of PREPAK, while the leader of the rival PREPAK faction, Maipak Sharma, surrendered the same year. Security forces also succeeded in destroying several bases of the Meitei insurgent groups. Security forces, while raiding a PLA camp in Tekcham, Thoubal district, killed nearly its entire top-leadership and arrested Bisheswar on July 6, 1981. On October 26, 1981, the PLA, PREPAK and the KCP were notified as unlawful organisations.
Counter-insurgency operations continued and on April 13, 1982, the new PLA leader, Thoundam Kunjabehari and eight other activists were killed in an encounter in Kadampokpi, near Imphal. Following these setbacks, the PLA failed to keep up the momentum, though sporadic low-level terrorist activities continued. But two other Meitei insurgent group-PREPAK and the KCP-found it difficult to recover from the losses suffered during counter-insurgency operations.
The end of the eighties once again engulfed Manipur in insurgency. Meitei extremists groups, particularly PLA, stepped up their activities. PLA militants killed Vandana Mellick, an Indian Police service (IPS) officer in an ambush near Imphal on April 8, 1989. Importantly, the PLA reorganised itself and formed a political wing called the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) the same year. The RPF seeks the secession of Manipur from India. The RPF established a ‘government-in-exile’ in Bangladesh’s Shylhet district, with Irengbam Bhorot Singh as the president. The RPF had a vice-president, a general secretary, secretaries in charge of various departments like home, finance foreign affairs, publicity and communications, social welfare, health and education. The armed wing of the RPF, PLA, was similarly reorganised on the lines of a disciplined army. The PLA had set up two camps in Myanmar and five in Bangladesh, Reports indicate that about a thousand PLA recruits received arms training in these camps. The PLA also formed a united front of Meitei extremists called Revolutionary Joint Committee (RJC) along with PREPAK and KCP. In its bid to enlist the support of the people, the PLA launched a vigorous drive against drug peddlers, in the early nineties.
Moreover, Meitei insurgent groups sought to project pan-Mongoloid identity. They rejected the Bengali script, which they believed suppressed their language and culture. To assert their separate identity, they revived the practices of old the Meitei religion-Senamahi. The insurgents also began to raise their voice against the Mayangs (outsiders) settled in Manipur. They perceived that domination by outsiders was largely responsible for their economic and social backwardness. The Pangals or Manipuri Muslims who constitute over seven percent of the population had been considered as Mayangs. In May, 1993, more than 90 people, including women and children, were killed in a series of clashes between the Meiteis and Pangals in Thoubal and Imphal districts. Reports indicate that the people’s Republican Army (PRA) that was set up in the early nineties instigated the communal clashes. Reports also sugest that a section of the Pangals established links in bangladesh and with Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for weapons and other assistance. Besides, a number of new outfits such as People’s United Liberation Front (PULF), north East Minority Front (NEMF), Islamic National Front, Islamic Revolutionary Front (IRF) and United Islamic Liberation Army (UILA) had been formed in order to protect their community.
While Meitei outfits remained active in the Imphal Valley, the major Naga insurgent group - National socialist Council of Nagaland — Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), unleashed a region of terror in the Naga-inhabited areas in four of Manipur’s five hill districts namely, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel. The NSCN-IM used Ukhrul district particularly (where its leader Muivah was born) as a base for collecting funds and recruiting cadres. The NSCN (IM) carried out several terrorist acts in Manipur in the nineties. On June 29, 1993. NSCN-IM militants killed 26 security force personnel and eight civilians in an ambush on National Highway No 39. During May-September 1993, NSCN-IM militants killed as many as 120 security forces personnel. On July 31, 1995, they attacked a Manipur Rifles post. In Kangohud, Senapati district, and looted 22 weaposn and 2,784 rounds of ammunition. Again in August 1995, NSCN-IM militants made a vain attempt on the life of the Deputy Chief Minister, Chaoba Singh.
The ethnic conflict between the Nagas and the Kukis — a major tribal group in Manipur - constituted another problem of the State. Clashes between the two groups are now not heard of. A number of Kuki outfits like Kuki National Army (KNA), Kuki National Front (KNF) and many others had been struggling for a separate state within the Indian Union since the late eighties.
The ethnic conflict had an added dimension as a result of a bitter struggle to control drug trafficking and smuggling of contraband through the border town of Moreh. The NSCN-IM controlled this illegal commerce till Kuki-Naga clashes erupted in 1992. The Kukis captured it from the Nagas but the NSCN-IM remained determined to drive its rival out from Moreh as well as out of Kuki settlements in the Naga-dominated hill districts. The conflict resulted in the death of nearly a thousand people and an anormous loss of property. Over 2000 houses were burnt and hundreds of villages were affected.
The entire state’s polity remained polarised along ethnic lines. In addition to Meitei, Kuki and Naga rebel groups, several other tribes such as Paite, Vaiphei and Hmars also launched their own terrorist groups in recent years. There had also been frequent internecine conflicts, particularly between the Kukis and the Paites. Violence between the Kukis and the Paites had peaked in 1997-98 when clashes claimed over thousand lives with 4600 house torched and hundreds of thousands of rupees-worth of property destroyed. However, there were no violent incidents between these two tribes since the signing of an agreement between their leaders in October 1998. An objective perusal of the role played by defence forces to bring peace and normalcy back to this region demands a dispassionate scruting of this situation.
-Lt Col SD Goswami
