IMPHAL, Sept 20: The underground Revolutionary People’s Front, RPF, has vehemently denied any involvement in the recent spate of firearm attacks on non locals in the state, saying the claim by Addl. SP Operations, Dr. A.K. Jhalajit on September 18 during a press conference, was concocted and designed to malign the revolutionary movement.
A release by the organisation said the party does not see the non-local labour migrants as enemies, but nonetheless said fresh influx would have to be checked and those who already entered the state after October 15, 1949, would not be considered as citizens of the state and must leave voluntarily.
It reminded that it had in an earlier statement asked all non locals to leave the state by May 31, 2010.
The release further explained this is because there is today a grave threat of a demographic shift which would ultimately result in the passing over of political power from the hands of locals to non-locals. Giving examples, it said this has happened in a number of places in the Northeast, in particular the erstwhile Cachari kingdom and the Tripuri kingdom.
Otherwise, the statement said the RPF empathises with the hapless migrants, who are amongst the 23 crore absolute poor of India.
The release said it is for this reason that the RPF is a close ally with the Maoists who too are working to defeat and overthrow the Indian state. It added, the party had made its position known from the very inception of the party as spelled out in DAWN Vol-1.
It also charged that the government forces are using these migrants as informers, either directly or else by impersonating and infiltrating their ranks. They then penetrate the various leikais and villages and do reconnaissance work for the government forces, thus charting out safe homes where underground cadres take shelter.
This being the case, these vendors can in some ways be seen as disguised army personnel, the release further said.
The statement said the allegation by Addl SP was based on a coerced statement made to the police by a capture cadre of the RPF Sgt. Maj. Nongmeikapam Naoba alias Nanao alias Shankar, 28, son of N. Bidhu Singh of Korou.
It said the RPF officer under whom Shankar worked, Maj. Thounaojam Romen Singh alias Robin, 42, never gave any order to him to kill non locals as the SP forced him to confess before the press.
It however added, the people sensing the danger of demographic profile shift, are in support of the move to check migration as well as to have settled migrants leave the state.
