The conflict in Manipur is taking a new and uneasy turn with drones making their way into the tiny northeastern state dropping bombs on unarmed villagers and security forces resulting in fear and uncertainty among the locals.
Two drone attacks in two days in the Koutruk and Senjam Chirang areas of Imphal West district have rung alarm bells in New Delhi which has not seen civilians being targeted by armed drones, a trend noticed in war-torn nations but not within a country’s population in peace times.
For security forces who have watched resistance forces in Myanmar launching attacks on military targets in Naypyitaw, escalating the conflict with weaponised drones, the trend in Manipur is worrisome as the safety of civilians caught in the conflict can become a challenge with more people getting displaced due to fear of strikes. Besides, the possibility of drone attacks on police camps has triggered the need to provide protection to police forces as well.
Security experts are studying how Myanmar’s Chin rebels, neighbouring the porous border with the Indian northeastern states of Manipur and Mizoram, had used a fleet of commercial and agricultural drones, mostly Chinese make, to drop bombs and drive the military out of most of the border areas. The drone attacks played a huge role in creating fragmented self-governing areas within Myanmar.
Intelligence agencies have reports of Indian insurgent groups fighting alongside the rebel forces in Myanmar which may have given them access to training and usage of drones, especially in the Hill areas.
“The vast swathes of land in Myanmar especially bordering India are lawless stretches where inimical elements and vested interests can creep in posing a huge threat to the stability of the entire region,” said a senior government official. The need of the hour is the urgent deployment of security forces on the India-Myanmar border, to keep the transnational threats at bay, especially given the disturbed security situation in India’s neighbourhood from Bangladesh to Myanmar and beyond.
The first signs of this transnational threat making its way into Manipur are the drones, as security officials who have studied them explain that these are not procured locally, and the weapons, drones and bombs being used are possibly making their way from the unmonitored India-Myanmar border, where boots on the ground are few and fencing is missing.
“While fencing the IMB can be a long-term solution, the immediate steps can be a complete deployment of border guarding forces,” added the official.
Civil and military strife in India’s neighbourhood has made matters worse and whether it is Assam, Tripura on the India-Bangladesh border or Manipur and Mizoram, the flow of arms, ammunition, narcotics and drones can pose a huge challenge if not addressed immediately.
Presently, security agencies do not have a foolproof system to combat drone strikes, an issue flagged for a long, but not found solutions yet. There is brainstorming by the security brass on whether to use anti-drone technology as jammers to incapacitate the drones or shoot them down. The latter may not be possible in civilian areas especially, said a security official, and it has been the experience of armed police forces in the past of the ineffective use of anti-drone technology.
Many a time, drone attacks only come to the notice after the damage is done as most incoming drones go undetected.
“There is a fear psychosis creeping in among villagers about the use of drones to drop bombs,” said a senior official. Drone threats in Manipur were unheard of recently, added the official, explaining that its proliferation can be sudden and quick and security forces need to be alert and prepared to counter it immediately.
Drone attacks have also not seen a parallel in the rest of the country, except at Jammu’s Indian Air Force Station where low-flying drones were used to drop Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in 2021.
Punjab, on its part, has seen drones coming in from across the India-Pakistan international border dropping weapons and drugs into Indian territory resulting in a Rocket Propelled Grenade attack on the intelligence headquarters of Punjab police in 2022.