Nov 20, 2010

Manipur: Sanayaima Another Trans Bangla Success?

On 13 October Manipur was shaken by the news that   Rajkumar Meghen, who leads the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), was held by Bangladeshi police . Meghen, whose alias is Sanayaima, was said to have been flown out of Bangladesh recently in an Indian aircraft. There is continued mystery over the arrest and transportation of Sanayaima as the Home Secretary Mr G K Pillai refused to confirm the arrest or move of the leader to India. It is apparent that the intelligence agencies may want to carry out a detailed interrogation of the guerilla leader before turning him up in the courts. The UNLF the oldest separatist group in India`s north-east was formed in 1964 and has estimated to have 5,000 armed fighters.  Meanwhile a series of bomb and grenade attacks and attempts also rocked the State.

The UNLF, is otherwise active in sponsoring militancy and for financing and extending its reach to the people it has come up with a scheme of micro financing through co-operative saving and credit banking system (Phunga Marup) since 2009. The system is reportedly active in four districts of Manipur and Cachar and Hojai sub-division in Nagaon which has sizeable Meitie population. The sums involved are Rs 30 to Rs 40 lakh per annum.  Loans varying from Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 are being given to handicraft and weavers persons for short terms at interest rates of 0.5 to 1 percent through self help group scheme. [Nagaland Post Report 01 November 2010].

While economic terrorism in the North East in the form of extortion and kidnapping is not unknown, use of micro financing to gain support of the people is a novel idea by the UNLF the oldest terror group in Manipur. This measure to win over the population may gain some success though how much it would be sustained over a period remains to be seen. More over where is the corpus for financing coming from?. What it also underlines is the need for self help groups in the North East for micro financing and those operating in this field could well note the demand and set up legal micro financing channels in the area to upset the militant’s moves.

NOV 2010