SIPHRO

Bano Haralu

parbung, February 08, 2006: Villagers in south Manipur’s Churachandpur district are all praise for the Army’s efforts in bringing peace and order into their lives. Once the writ of militant outfits, the region is seeing a new era of peace, thanks to the Army’s efforts in curbing militancy.

“The militants would always harass us for rice and our chickens. The last doctor that was here was in 1997. Now we hear that some people will be brought back and we will even have a doctor,” said a villager.

Parallel government
Parbung, Thanglon and neighbouring villages of the district are located in hostile terrain where the militants have been virtually running a parallel government for the past nine years.

Some areas of the state along the Indo-Myanmar border have been the worst affected, due to frequent clashes between the Army and militants.

In 2004, the Army succeeded in flushing out militants from many of these areas resulting in the cadres of the banned United National Liberation Front shifting their base.

In January, the Army’s “Operation Dragnet” cleared landmines from the region but not without loss.

“Our troops faced stiff resistance from January 20-23 during which 14 UNLF died and eight others were injured.

“We recovered a large number of arms and around 70 kg of gunpowder. The army also took casualties – Lt Col Bakshi as well as a jawan were killed,” said ZU Saha, GOC, 3 Corps.

Caught in the crossfire
In the last two years, 80 civilians have died due to the IEDs and recently 13 others were killed and 20 others lost their limbs.

The Army has now declared the section of the highway between Churachandpur and Tipaimukh free from militants.

Now, villagers who fled their homes into the neighbouring state of Mizoram are returning with fresh hopes for happier times ahead.

Source: NDTV.com