Another police source said that the commandos are picked by the CM office, but unofficially. It is like a “private army for the state,” the source said.
Notably, the term “Manipur Commandos” is not officially incorporated in the state’s law enforcement structure, police sources said. Instead, it refers to specialised units that are formed by recruiting skilled young personnel from the Manipur Rifles, local police, and the Indian Reserve Battalion.
“Small teams of five to six individuals are created and are stationed across the valley for special operations against UGs (underground militants). Equipped with sophisticated weapons and bulletproof vehicles, they operate across the state without any jurisdictional constraints,” the second officer explained.
Votaries of the commandos, including members of the Assam Rifles and Manipur police, laud them as a “highly effective unit” that has played a major role in eradicating insurgency from the state. However, critics argue that the commandos have been known to abuse their powers and engage in fake encounters.
In the ongoing conflict between the Meitei ethnic group and the Kuki tribes, the Manipur Commandos continue to be utilised in selective operations, and have been credited by the police and security forces for helping maintain peace in the state. But Kuki groups have consistently maintained that the unit is protecting only the Meitei side while persecuting the Kukis.
At a time when the appointment of Col. Sanjenbam has once again started the debate surrounding the Manipur Commandos, ThePrint takes a close look at this specialised unit, its composition, role, and the controversy surrounding it.
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‘Specialised hit teams’
The Manipur Commandos trace their origins back to 1981-82. This is when a platoon of commandos (CDOs) was established in the state by recruiting “young and agile” personnel of the Manipur Rifles, the armed wing of the police, a source in the security establishment told ThePrint.
“Special training in weapons and tactics was given to them. They were also well-versed in unarmed combat, ambush, cordon, and search,” the source said.
In 1994, the Manipur police were sanctioned over 200 commandos who were posted across the Imphal Valley to carry out anti-insurgency operations.
“The commandos that were brought in the 80s proved to be effective because they were fast, knew the language, were locals, and were familiar with the terrain. Their success rate was greater than anyone else’s. These were specialised hit teams that could be roped in in any situation that would require quick solutions,” the second source from Manipur police said.
Today, there are over 2,500 Manipur Commandos across ranks, actively operating in districts throughout the valley, police sources said.
“These boys are strong, dextrous, and very swift, something which is required in counter-insurgency operations. They are also given a free hand to move across the state with their bullet-proof vehicles. Wherever they get intel, they can go and carry out an operation,” the second police officer added.
The Manipur Commandos can be categorised into two groups, he further said— police commandos and special commandos.
While the special commandos report to an inspector general (IG)-rank officer, undertaking tasks ranging from intelligence gathering to operations and training, the police commandos report to district superintendents of police (DSPs) in their respective areas.
Most CDOs are drawn from the India Reserve Battalion (IRB), a state force that receives partial funding from the central government, but many commandos are also recruited from the Manipur Rifles and the local police, he said.
“Wherever the state has special interest, these commandos are used,” he explained, adding that apart from counter-insurgency operations, the squads are also used for crackdowns on extortionists and cartels involved in drug and weapon smuggling from across the Myanmar border.
“Since peace was restored in Manipur and insurgents were pushed back to Myanmar, or killed or arrested, we started using these special units for other key operations and they performed well in these too,” the source said.
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‘A British concept’
Manipur has had a long history of militancy, with armed groups from the Naga, Meitei, and Kuki ethnic communities fighting for secession. The Indian Army was deployed in the state in 1980 to counter the insurgency, but it took nearly three decades to stabilise the situation.
A third police source said that ten years ago, during militancy, the Manipur Commandos played a key role in quashing insurgent forces in the valley.
“There were mass-scale arrests and killings and the insurgents were scared of these teams. These operations went on for years and things got better because of them,” the source claimed.
The second police officer explained that the reason for creating specialised squads was to ensure that they could focus on counter-insurgency operations and “not be bothered” with day-to-day law and order duties.
“The selected few, who are very good, are handpicked and teams of five to six are created and deployed,” the officer said.
He added that the concept of having a small, highly specialised unit of commandos was a concept that was introduced by the British.
“During World War 2, the British had raised elite forces known as commandos for special purposes like covert strikes. These were highly skilled, trained people who used to remain on the field for long hours,” he said. “These were a coterie of specialised fighters who were used not just in one unit, but across units and regiments depending upon the need of the hour. So the idea was generated from here.”
Nothing official about it?
The process of forming and disbanding squads of commandos is highly flexible, explained the third Manipur police officer, “since there is nothing official about it”.
Members of the Manipur Commandos draw salaries from their original units and serve in these specialised teams without fixed tenures. Fresh recruits can be brought in at any time, and team members may be dropped at will, too, depending on the need.
Moreover, there is no official designation for such specialised units within the Manipur police hierarchy.
As reported earlier by ThePrint, official data shows that Manipur’s police force has a sanctioned strength of 25,080 and an actual strength of 28,894. With one police officer per 108.98 citizens, the state ranks third in police-citizen ratio, trailing only Nagaland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
According to the website of the Manipur Police, the branches of the force include the civil police, armed police (Manipur Rifles and Indian Reserve Battalion), criminal intelligence department (CID), traffic police, narcotics & affairs of border (NAB), DG control room, Manipur police wireless, Manipur Police Training School (MPTS), forensic science laboratory (FSL), central motor transport workshop (CMTW), and home guard.
Yet, despite the absence of a formal “Manipur Commando” title, these units are regarded as the most powerful police squads within the state, authorised to carry out operations anywhere, irrespective of jurisdiction.
‘Fake encounters, extortion’
The Manipur Commandos have a checkered history marked by allegations of fake encounters, torture, and extortion.
Kelvin Neihsial, general secretary of the All Manipur Tribal Union, alleged that the extensive powers accorded to these squads have often been misused, including in the context of the current ethnic strife.
Manipur Commandos, he claimed, are leading mobs against the Kukis and burning their villages
“These commandos are militants in uniform who are working for the state to kill and finish all Kukis, destroy their homes. This unit needs to be disbanded, not strengthened,” he said, speaking to ThePrint.
“They first killed for gallantry awards and promotions and then they started supporting the Meitei militants, the Arambai Tengol and Meitei Lepoon (two hardline Meitei organisations). They gave them combat training to fight against us Kukis,” he further alleged.
Reacting to the allegations, the second Manipur police officer quoted earlier said that there are “rotten apples” in every unit.
“Since they have such powers, some of them tend to misuse them. There are rotten apples everywhere and they are brought to book. However, we cannot ignore the fact that they have been the most effective unit for countering insurgency,” the officer said.
In 2012, families of alleged extra-judicial encounter victims filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, stating that between May 1979 and May 2012, there were 1,528 recorded deaths attributed collectively to the Assam Rifles, the central armed police forces, and the Manipur Commandos.
The Supreme Court in July 2016, held that armed forces cannot use excessive force even in areas that come under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives the armed forces sweeping powers, including to shoot to kill anyone they believe to be a security threat.The court also ruled that over 1,500 cases of alleged fake encounters in Manipur over the last 20 years should be investigated.
In 2013, the Supreme Court appointed a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Santosh Hegde to investigate six “sample cases” of alleged fake encounters in Manipur.
The committee found that none of the encounters it investigated were carried out in “self-defence” by the security forces. It also found that the encounters were not “genuine” and the victims did not have any criminal antecedents.
Supreme Court rulings, as well as guidelines issued by the Army HQ, specify that an encounter is only permissible under AFSPA if lives are endangered or in self-defence.
Notably, N Nungshibabu Singh, a havildar-rank policeman, and three others were found guilty of orchestrating a fake encounter in a 2010 judicial enquiry. Singh, however, received the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry in 2013.
The third Manipur police source said that amidst the allegations against the Manipur Commandos, the Director General of Police (DGP) passed an order early this year stating that the unit will be assisted by the Assam Rifles in all operations. This, he said, was to ensure some accountability.
The source further clarified that the commandos were primarily stationed in the valley districts due to objections concerning their deployment in the hills, where the Kuki community is concentrated.
“Except Moreh, which falls on the border with Myanmar, the commando units have not been deployed in any hill district,” the source said. “Their operations are kept under check and there were clear orders that Assam Rifles will assist them.”
The source did, however, acknowledge that “in many cases, this wasn’t followed”.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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