A 34-year-old man from Manipur’s hill district Churachandpur has been arrested from Guwahati by the Assam special task force (STF) for alleged involvement in sabotage activities linked to the insurgent group United Kuki National Army, or UKLA.
The accused, LS Yosef Chongloi, handled finances — “self-styled finance secretary” — for the UKNA, and is suspected to be involved in sabotage activities covering Manipur and bordering areas of Assam, STF sources said.
The UKLA is not part of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement in Manipur.
The sabotage activities include the bomb attack that destroyed a bridge on National Highway 2 in Manipur’s Saparmeina in April, and an ambush on fuel tankers in Tamenglong, the STF sources said.
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The Inspector General of Police (STF) gave the order to arrest Chongloi based on intelligence inputs that he had been operating from Beltola area under Basistha police station in Guwahati, sources said.
He has been charged under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the stringent anti-terror law. The charges include waging war against the state, conspiracy against the state, collecting firearms and concealing them to wage a war.
The Assam Police and the STF have been carrying out operations actively amid the ethnic tensions in Manipur.
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In June this year, a man in Assam was arrested for allegedly sourcing drone parts to supply to a terror group in Manipur’s valley areas, sources in the STF had said. The STF operatives had recovered a huge stock of drone parts from him.
In the same month, a man who allegedly tried to sneak into Manipur carrying 10 high-end drone batteries for a terror group was also arrested by the Assam STF. A filmmakers’ association of the Kuki tribes in Manipur, however, had refuted the allegations against what it called a renowned member of the association, who simply bought the drone batteries for work.
The police had called the arrest a “major breakthrough”, pointing at the use of drones in violence-hit Manipur.
