‘Protection money’ to Arambai Tenggol — how traders are operating in strife-torn Imphal

Imphal: A shopkeeper at a location in Imphal, barely two kilometres away from Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s residence in the heart of the state capital, was left perplexed when he returned to the shop five months after having fled at the beginning of the ethnic violence last May.

With the outbreak of the clashes, he downed the shutter of his shop — rented out by a Kuki — and returned with his family to his home state Bihar. When he returned to Imphal, he says he found the letters ‘AT.UN’ haphazardly scribbled across the locked shutter of his grocery shop. Unable to make sense of the writing, he called his landlord, who had fled Imphal, to enquire.

“His number remains unreachable. For a while, I could not make sense of what had happened,” he told ThePrint.

The shopkeeper, however, did not have to wait long to decode the graffiti, as “a group of men dressed in military fatigues” came knocking on his door.

“Then I realised AT stands for Arambai Tenggol [a radical Meitei revivalist group] and UN for unit. They said if I wanted to continue doing business, I would have to pay them at least 60 percent of what I used to pay as rent to my Kuki landlord. I had no choice but to agree,” claimed the shopkeeper.

The influence of the Arambai Tenggol can be gauged from the fact that on Wednesday nearly all of Manipur’s elected legislators from the Imphal Valley attended a meeting at Kangla Fort having been ‘summoned’ by the outfit.

Over eight months after the eruption of ethnic violence on 3 May last year, Manipur remains on the boil. Geographically, the state is divided into the hill and valley areas. While the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley occupies the central region, the southern hills are primarily inhabited by the Kuki tribes, and the northern hills are home to the Nagas.

Ravaged buildings like the one in the picture are reminders of the extent of ethnic conflict in Imphal and Manipur | Sourav Roy Barman | ThePrint

Ravaged buildings like the one in the picture are reminders of the extent of ethnic conflict in Imphal and Manipur | Sourav Roy Barman | ThePrint

The scars of violence are easy to spot. Imphal neighbourhoods, which were once hubs of multiculturalism — housing a population of Meiteis, Kukis, Nagas, Muslims and a smattering of Bihari families, now wear a dispirited look.

Across New Checkon and New Lambulane, adjoining localities in the centre of Imphal, commercial establishments and properties once owned by Kukis have either been “torched to ashes or taken over by Arambai Tenggol” — the letters AT is seen scribbled on downed shutters and locked doors “to mark authority and ownership”.

A similar narrative of loss and displacement is reported from Kuki-dominated hill districts, as Meitei families and their tenants claim they found themselves driven out to relief camps in the Valley, leaving behind their properties, which have either been levelled or taken over by tribal outfits, many of which stand accused of collaborating with armed insurgents.

At Kangpokpi, for instance, another native of Bihar recounted the circumstances that forced him to shift houses and look for a rented premise to open his shop.

“They damaged all our belongings as our landlord was a Meitei. We managed to save our lives by promising to look for a new Kuki landlord,” he said, as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passed by his shop on National Highway 2, and made its way to neighbouring Nagaland.

ThePrint reached out to the Manipur DGP for a comment. This report will be updated once a response is received.

A government employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ThePrint, “In any conflict of this nature, the minorities have to suffer. What Kukis have suffered here [in Imphal] mirror what Meiteis have faced in the hills. But the destruction here is minimal. In the hills, Meitei properties have been flattened to leave no signs that they ever existed.”

“I am not taking any side just because I am a Meitei. It is the bitter truth,” the employee added.

ThePrint had earlier reported how the violence had seen a resurgence of “extortion by armed men” — once “rampant across Imphal valley”, but which had shown “a drop over the past few years following a decline in insurgency”.

Sources in the security establishment had said, several valley-based insurgent groups (VBIGs) and their volunteers were extorting money from valley residents [Meiteis and Muslim Pangals] on the pretext of “protecting the community from Kuki militants”. They had also raised concern about the renewed public support for these underground groups which had again become active in Manipur.

‘How long can we sustain like this’

In Imphal, tenants whose previous Kuki landlords have all left the valley, are now allegedly operating under the shadow of extortion. Kuki organisations based in the hills have accused the Arambai Tenggol of being a private militia backed by the state.

To avoid being targeted by Arambai Tenggol members, Naga and Muslim families in Imphal have put up boards outside their houses and establishments, announcing their ethnicity. Signages such as ‘This property is owned by the Naga community’ and ‘Meitei Pangals own this house’ are visible.

Bihari and Nepali traders have been “allowed” to reopen their business, allegedly with the condition that they will have to shell out “protection money”.

“They (Arambai Tenggol) took one identity card after another from us for verification. Then they started charging protection money from us. Those who were paying Rs 10,000 rent earlier are now paying Rs 5,000 to Arambai Tenggol, those paying Rs 4,000 are giving them Rs 2,000 and likewise. Do we even have any choice?” claimed a migrant trader.

In some parts of the city, where police and paramilitary personnel can be seen patrolling round the clock, wooden and metal scaffoldings block entrances to many erstwhile Kuki localities. Many Imphal residents are construing the radical shift in the city’s composition as fait accompli.

While most Kuki families fled Imphal right after the violence erupted on 3 May last year, a few who stayed back, primarily owing to the influential status they enjoyed as high-ranking government servants, say they were taken out of the city overnight by the administration in September citing imminent threats to their safety.

“Twenty-four of us were not given time to even pack our belongings and we were herded into vehicles with only the clothes we were wearing,” an evicted Kuki person had then said in a statement. In the bylanes of New Lambulane, ThePrint found the entrances of many such abandoned houses barricaded by sheets of wood and tin.

The once bustling localities wear a deserted look, prompting many shopkeepers, including Meiteis, to consider folding up their businesses.

“Apart from the hundreds of Kuki families, these neighbourhoods also housed a large number of students from the hills who were enrolled in schools and colleges in the Imphal valley. We hardly end up selling goods worth Rs 200-300 a day now. How long can we sustain this?” asked a trader, underlining the shared economic interests that once bound the two communities.

With a spate of violence in the recent weeks, particularly in Moreh bordering Myanmar, and the peripheral areas of the Valley like Bishnupur, Manipur is once again on edge.

A Meitei unemployed youth in Chingmeirong painted a bleak picture of the state’s future.

“It took years for the state to return to normalcy after the Nagas and the Kukis clashed in the early nineties. And that was the case when there was no social media. The entry of social media, which is fanning the violence like no other medium, means that we are staring at an abyss. I don’t harbour any hope of harmony in the next 10 to 20 years,” the youth said.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)