Report: Indian state descending into anarchy

December 6, 2000
Web posted at: 3:17 PM HKT (0717 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- A secret report sent to India's prime minister describes a state of anarchy in the northeastern state of Manipur, where militants move freely in government offices and most police stations have been abandoned.

The Pioneer newspaper said on Wednesday that, according to the Home (interior) Ministry report, "the writ of the extremists is more effective than that of the administration" in the mountainous state.

It said militants from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur have entered the state secretariat and walked away with classified documents, civil servants are sitting at home and senior police officials have to bribe militants to get back looted weapons.

The PLA is leading a three-decade-old battle to win independence for the mostly tribal population of 2.6 million people.

It accuses the federal government of neglecting the landlocked state, one of seven northeastern states where dozens of groups are fighting for separate homelands or fighting each other in tribal wars.

The Pioneer said 22 members of the state legislative assembly had been hiding at the chief minister's house in the state capital, Imphal, for the past three days.

It quoted the report as saying that "militants are able to move freely within the Secretariat and government offices, with the security forces not taking any action."

It said that only 18 of the state's 57 police stations are functional. Most have been abandoned following extremist attacks.

"The worst-affected districts are Thoubal and Chandel, where the administration is almost non-existent -- and hundreds of armed militants freely roam the streets," it added.

The daily said government officers who try to resist the militants are shot dead or attacked, and cited the case of a registrar of cooperative societies who was sprayed with bullets for refusing to obey orders from extremists.

It said militants had also called for a ban on Hindi-language films and programmes on satellite television channels, and had seized Hindi-language film cassettes from video stores and cable operators.

Police told Reuters in September that guerrillas from a group called the Revolutionary People's Front had burnt thousands of Hindi video and audio cassettes and compact discs as part of a drive to preserve the state's tribal language and culture.

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