On New Year's Eve the State Police was dealt a hard blow when senior IPS officer in charge of Intelligence T Thangthuam and his escort commander were killed in an ambush by the PLA at Bishnupur district. Then came another blow when PLA cadres attacked a team of Thoubal police commandos at Thoubal killing its Officer-in-Charge N Lokhon and three other personnel while inflicting grievous injuries on two other personnel on February 20.

A PLA cadre, who ostensibly led the attack, was also killed in the gun fight. N Lokhon was a decorated police officer, who was at the forefront of counter-insurgency operations and to many young police commandos; he must have surely been the inspiration. His death will certainly be a loss to the State Police Department which will be hard to fill.

As expected the four slain police commandos were given full State honors and the observation made by DGP AK Parashar at the funeral service of the four personnel was profound. He admitted that the State Police force had indeed suffered a great loss, but added that it would not demoralize the police in any way. The words of the DGP must have surely acted like balm to a good number of policemen who were yet to recover from the shock of the audacious attack earlier. However it would have been that much more reassuring if only the DGP had also assured the people that there would be no witch hunting by the police commandos.

We can understand the feeling of outrage and loss felt by the police commandos over the death of N Lokhon, for the late police officer was the face of counter-insurgency operation in the State and a figure to be looked up to by his juniors as well as colleagues.

However what we fail to understand and what we find unacceptable is the manner in which the police personnel went berserk and thrashed and threatened the family members of the late PLA cadre, Kh Bikash. A young lady, Inaobi, stated to be the girl friend of the late cadre was also picked up by the police from the house of Bikash and though the CJM has remanded her to police custody till March 3, we wonder why no arrest memo was issued at the time of picking her up.

The police have put their side of the story before the Court accusing the girl of being a part of the attack. We will leave the judgment to the Court, but we would certainly like to question why no case was found registered when a team of Manipur Human Rights Commission went to the Thoubal police station one day after the lady was picked up. Also remember Inaobi was produced before the Court only on February 23 while in fact she was picked up on February 21. It is also significant to note that the otherwise extremely sensitive and alert media in Manipur did not pass any immediate comments on the conduct of the police commandos.

To be brutally frank, the silence maintained by the media on the issue may have been due to the dicey situation dictated by the need not to rub the police in any way at this sensitive juncture. This is what we find disturbing. People in Manipur have for long lived under a fear psychosis due to the conflict situation. We can understand the fear generated by the non-State actors, but when this fear is generated by the State, then it is not a good sign for Manipur at all.

The State police commando is an elite fighting force and it has been engaged in containing the activities of militants for the last twenty years or so. The responsibility and the laurels it has earned down the years should not be blown away by some thoughtless action. 

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)