New Delhi On the evening of December 23, 2023, four armed militants stopped Imphal resident Dhanaraj Singh Chongtham and held him at gunpoint. They did not harm him, but left with his Hyundai Creta car. Three days later, on the afternoon of December 26, when Amit Hussain, a section officer with the Manipur government, was on his way home in his brother’s Tata Harrier in Thoubal, 20km away from Imphal, he was stopped by armed militants. In a state where law and order has scarcely existed for the most part of a year, he feared the worst — but they snatched his car and left.

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Manipur has been in the throes of a violent conflict for well over 10 months. What began as an ethnic conflict between the majority Meiteis who reside in the Imphal valley and the tribal Kukis, has grown into seemingly irreconcilable cleavages within Manipuri society, with 219 people killed, 50,000 people displaced, armed militia prowling the streets, police forces divided on community lines, and lives being led in enclaves of fear.

Another aspect of the anarchy that has swept Manipur, personnel from different security forces told HT, is the rampant looting of vehicles of all kinds for all kinds of reasons — cars for petty crimes and getaways, vans and SUVs for abductions and attacks, and heavy construction vehicles to build bunkers, sniper posts and dig trenches.

HT has seen at least 45 FIRs, in which 50 vehicles were looted by militants between July 2023 and February 2024. Since May 3, 2023, the day the violence began, senior police officers said that hundreds of vehicles have been looted in the state. These include not just SUVs, sedans or small cars, but also larger vehicles like earth-movers or poclain machines.

There has barely been a month where several cases of vehicle thefts, often at gunpoint, have not been reported. On January 4, 2024, just days after Amit Hussain’s Harrier was stolen, five armed militants fired outside the home of S Ranjit Singh in Thoubal, and took away his Hyndai Santro. Officers pointed out that in most of these cases, there was little headway in tracing these vehicles, but when there was police action, it often led to a retaliation. On February 28, for instance, militants of the radical group Arambai Tengol abducted additional superintendent of police (operations), Moirangthem Amit Singh for two hours, leading to police commandos in several parts of the state laying down arms in symbolic protest. This came hours after the officer had arrested one of the members of the group for snatching two Ambassador cars in broad daylight in Imphal.

Horses for courses

The looting of vehicles, officials say, occur in both the valley, where the Meiteis are predominant, and in the hill districts that have a majority Kuki population. And yet, patterns are different; both on the nature of vehicles stolen and how they are used.

If SUVs, sedans and small cars are looted more often in valley districts such as Imphal East, West, Bishnupur and Thoubal, the hill districts such as Kangpokpi and Churachandpur have reported robberies of bulldozers, roller vehicles, JCBs, and excavators.

In the valley, police officers said, the stolen vehicles have essentially created a cycle that aided crime — the number plates of the vehicles are removed or changed, and they’re then used in other crimes. An FIR filed by a 44-year-old in Imphal East on October 10 said that he and his daughter were held at gunpoint and ₹4.8 lakh was stolen from them, with the assailants arriving in a van that bore no registration plates. On December 24, another FIR in Imphal documents that a Maruti Swift was stolen after two militants stopped the vehicle in a Maruti Brezza that had no number plates.

Even militants of the banned wing of UNLF (United National Liberation Front), according to an FIR filed at the Imphal East police station on October 11, were caught travelling in a Maruti Gypsy without any registration number plate.

One FIR at Lamshang police station in Imphal West on January 24, filed on a complaint by a senior manager of a construction company, showed that the accused specifically asked for either two LMVs (light medium vehicles) or for money to procure them. “The access to looted firearms has led to even street criminals turning extortionists. The scale is much higher than police records because there are many cases where people who have been threatened and given up their vehicles, have not come forward. Over the last few months, we have also come across several cases of vehicles of erstwhile Kuki residents whose cars were stolen from abandoned automobile workshops in the valley districts,” the second Manipur Police officer said.

In the hills, however, senior police officers said, the patterns are different. Heavy machinery and vehicles are stolen to build infrastructure that aids the violence. “JCB and poclain machines, which were looted in hill districts, are being used to construct bunkers or build trenches. They are also used to set up or construct sniper commando outposts by armed militants in the hills. Specific areas in jungles in the hills have been cleared by these vehicles to make camps for snipers,” said the officer, who asked not to be named.

Another FIR filed on December 12 at Churachandpur, said an excavator that was being transported by a trailer from Churachandpur to Arunachal Pradesh was snatched by two or three armed people outside the district hospital. Only the excavator was snatched. The driver and the help were beaten up, but then let go.

The officer also said that these looted digging machines were the primary reason why it was proving difficult to retrieve stolen weapons, a long-standing challenge before the security forces in the state. Since May, of the 5,682 arms and around 650,000 pieces of ammunition that were looted by mobs from state armories, the Manipur police recovered only 1,647 arms and around 23,000 ammunition till January 15. “In most cases we are recovering weapons that are buried deep in the ground. Some are buried in cavities over 15-20 feet deep. The hidden chambers in the ground are built using heavy machines. We used metal detectors but even those do not work because the weapons are buried that deep. Security forces are recovering the looted weapons only on the basis of human intelligence,” an Assam Rifles officer said.

Gojen Singh, a contractor who was engaged by the Manipur state rural road development agency to build a Bailey bridge in Churachandpur under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), said, “Sometime in August, armed men came to the construction site, attacked my workers and took away all three JCB vehicles, one Shaktimaan truck, and all the machines that were used to build the bridge.”

Th Somarendra, convener of the All-Manipur Contractors Association Forum, an umbrella body of the three largest contractor groups in Manipur, said that so far they have managed to document at least 81 missing earth-movers, 123 rollers, 60 Tata dippers, 20 bulldozers, and 20 Tata trucks. “This is based on verified complaints filed by people whose workers went to construction sites and verified losses. As and when workers are able to reach these sites in places like Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Moreh, and Tamenglong, they are informing their contractors and we are filing zero FIRs. Construction work has been hit totally because of the violence and this loot,” he said.

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Manipur Police officers authorised to speak to the media did not respond to requests seeking comment.

But police officers, admitting to the problem, said forces were making headway.

A mid-level officer, who asked not to be named, said, “The security forces are at work. People who are indulging in extortion, are being arrested almost every day. The number of cases will dip and recoveries will increase.”

But as with all else in Manipur, there is a long road to these recoveries, and peace that lies ahead.