Operation flop (November 14)

The incident involving a raid by personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) in a nursing school hostel in Churachandpur and the subsequent fleeing by all the hostellers to Imphal does not speak well of the method being adopted by security forces engaged in the task of counter insurgency operations in Manipur. 

What is a matter of serious concern is the fact that all 37 students in the hostel are girls. The operation conducted reportedly at the presence of two lady officers lasted about one hour. But at the end of the day the search operation drew a blank. 

The BSF was conducting the raid following information that two inmates of the hostel have links with an underground organization and they possessed wireless sets. But the personnel had not only failed to recover the objects they had been looking for but also could not identify the inmates. This demonstrates how poor and ineffective the intelligence networks of the BSF are. Or is it a case of someone playing a joke with the BSF personnel and the girl students. 

Of course there are no charges of misbehavior of the personnel during the operation, but this fact has not been able to allay the fear of students. They have now fled to the capital city and are demanding that they be shifted to a center in Imphal. The students who have crossed four months of their one and a half years nursing course said they could not continue to stay at the hostel under tense and insecure situation. Their fear is understandable given past records of sexual assault by members of central forces during search operations in the State. The report that the armed personnel had threatened the unarmed young students, that too girls, shows the raiding party in a very poor light.

This column has nothing against conducting operations to nab militants or seize their equipments by central or state forces. But operations of this kind should be based on well-founded information and that they should not act on mere suspicion. Because they are violating the sanctity of an academic institution and above all the inmates are girls. 

The development after the raid has demonstrated that such farce has seriously disturbed the minds of the young girls and also the academic atmosphere in the institution. The girls will never feel secure and safe until adequate steps are taken to ensure that such incident does not occur in future. They are now unwilling to return to the hostel. 

Members of the central forces are deployed in Manipur to assist local administration and hence it goes without saying that they should act in full cooperation with the local police. But alas, this is not the case in Manipur. Now that the Government has instituted a magisterial probe into the incident and the school has been shut down for seven days from today. 

It is hoped that the inquiry will come up with suggestions that can prevent such incidents. It is also hoped that the BSF authority in Manipur will review the action of its boys and take steps to prevent such raids.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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