Imphal:
A YouTuber from Manipur who challenged the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to arrest him last year appeared in a fresh video, shouting at the security forces during recent protests in the border state.
Sources said details of the YouTuber who identifies himself as Pt Marvin Kuki and runs a YouTube channel of the same name under the handle @PaotinmangChongloi have been flagged to the cyber cell.
On March 8, the Kuki tribes in Manipur tried to stop public transport and clashed with the security forces who were trying to enforce the Centre’s order to ensure free movement of people in the violence-hit state that is under the President’s rule.
A protester was killed and many others including security force personnel were injured.
Paotinmang uploaded a video of the March 8 protest in which he was seen shouting at the security forces to “go back”.
“If the central forces can’t keep neutral in both communities, please leave us alone. We will fight them,” he said.
The central forces escorting trucks carrying oil and cooking gas faced no problem while going towards southern Manipur’s Churachandpur on March 8. However, they ran into a wall of protests on the highway towards Kangpokpi.
Last year, Paotinmang uploaded a video on his YouTube channel wearing a camouflage battledress and holding an AK series assault rifle.
“… Catch me if you can, I don’t care. L**** NIA,” he said in the video using a swear word in Hindi before cocking the assault rifle. He deleted the video later.
In another video, which he addressed to the valley-dominant Meitei community after the violence in Jiribam in November 2024, Paotinmang said, “Whether it is your child or your dog, they will die. You have no choice. We can do anything we want. If CRPF doesn’t behave, they won’t even get food. You killed our volunteers in Jiribam with central forces’ help. We will do what we have to do; we don’t care whether they are central forces or not.”
The “volunteers” Paotinmang referred to were shot dead by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in an encounter in Jiribam district in November 2024. While Kuki groups say they were “volunteers”, the then Manipur government in a cabinet statement called them “militants”. The same day, an infant, two children, and three women from the Meitei community were kidnapped by suspected “Kuki militants” and killed in Jiribam, the government said.
Over two months ago, the journalist of a local news channel was hit by a bullet in his leg while covering a skirmish in the foothills. Paotinmang posted a video on this too.
“… That Impact TV reporter was lucky that he survived. Don’t come back. Next time it’s your head. Pray to your god, sprinkle some water on your tulsi plant…” he said in the video.
Paotinmang claimed to a news agency that Kuki militants never took part in the Manipur violence and would return to studies “if this war ends”.
The Manipur Police, however, in a statement said they identified the bodies of three militants of the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) who were killed in a gunfight in Jiribam on September 6, 2024. A member of the Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF(P), was also killed in the gunfight, the police said.
The KLA has two factions, one each with the two umbrella Kuki-Zo groups that have signed the controversial tripatriate Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the state government and the Centre.
Firearms Show On Social Media
Paotinmang is not alone in brandishing firearms and dog-whistling on social media to keep tensions alive, sources who contacted the cyber cell in the Centre said.
Many members of the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei militant groups that returned from neighbouring Myanmar had been regularly seen holding firearms and roaming around Imphal valley since May 2023 until recently, when Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla ordered the handover of looted and illegally held firearms after the Centre imposed President’s rule.
Any civilian found keeping looted or illegal firearms under the name of “volunteers” won’t be tolerated, sources said on March 6, the day the firearms handover deadline set by the Governor ended.
In 2023 and early 2024, Arambai Tenggol (AT) men were seen with grenade-launchers and assault rifles, standing on SUVs and cruising across towns in the valley areas. Recently, the Arambai Tenggol said it handed over all weapons as instructed by the Governor and placed full trust on the security forces that they would demolish bunkers on the hilltops and stop suspected Kuki militants from firing towards Meitei villages in the foothills.
The AT gave statements supporting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Governor Bhalla’s decisions on bringing peace in Manipur, after the President’s rule came. AT chief Korounganba Khuman faces a case being probed by the NIA.
“The two communities produced many videos in the year of the outbreak of violence. They were all armed young men calling themselves volunteers. The situation has changed. Manipur is under President’s rule and the Centre and the security forces are trying hard to ensure at least the firings stop,” an official source said.
“If people continue to make mass videos that instigate their own community and threaten others, the situation may flare up again. Social media can no longer remain a tool to spread hate and instability in Manipur. We will take strong action and you will hear more in the coming days,” the source said.
The valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation. Over 250 have died in the violence and nearly 50,000 have been internally displaced.
Kuki leaders, nearly two dozen militant groups that have signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement, and their frontal civil organisations have demanded the Centre give them a separate administration before allowing communities to move freely across Manipur.
Meitei organisations have questioned why thousands of internally displaced people living in relief camps are threatened by the Kuki tribes from returning home to rebuild their lives, and why people cannot travel safely on national highways, when talks can go on simultaneously.
By
