In the wake of 2 months of continuous curfew and general strike going on since july 23rd in Manipur, regarding the killing of a man and a pregnant woman in alleged “fake encounter”, I feel like narrating my first hand experience of an incident about Indian Army/Police that has made a deep impact on me.

6 years ago from now in 2003 in the month of March, I was preparing for my Matriculation exam. Both my father and mother were in hospital as my father was seriously ill and was having kidney operation. My elder brother was in Delhi for his studies. Only my sister and I were in the house. At around 2 am in the midnight, there was a frantic knock in the door. I woke up abruptly, but I could not understand what was going on. Initially I thought that it was an earthquake which was making the door noisy. But as the frantic knock continues, I realized that there is someone at our doorstep. My sister was in the other side of the room and I could understand that she must be really scared. I was also really scared as there is no one in the house other than two of us. After a few seconds, someone spoke in a harsh voice in Hindi. I realized that it was the Indian Army and my whole body was trembling like hell(after you finished reading this, you would understand why any civilian in Manipur is so much scared of Army or police). I thought for a split second whether I should open the door or not. Not opening the door may mean forcing their way in and then God knows what could happen. I opened the door at last. Just as I opened it, I was surrounded by 3-4 army personals with their guns pointing at me. They forced me out of the house. They didn’t say any word. All of them were heavily drunk. I thought whether I should ask them what was going on but I did not have the courage to. I found that there were more than 30 policemen and there were other 4 man from my neighbours (they must have been called out of their house in the same manner). We were asked to move in a row without giving any information of what was going on. They led us by the river side towards the hanging bridge which was about 200 meters away in the midnight. I thought that some bad things like ambush by militants might have happened to the armies and now 5 civilian of us are going to pay the price(This logic is very much rational and valid for anyone staying in Manipur). I thought that I would be shot like any other person and I was in a very emotional state. All those hard work and studies I had done seem meaningless at that point of time. I wished my parents were there in home. I could hear my sister crying and then running to wake up my aunt in the neighbor. My aunt along with some other neighboring women came running after me shouting to the policemen to leave me behind and telling that I was only a student. The armies didn’t bother to answer and they didn’t even let them to come near 5 of us. My aunt fought her way in and held my hands. We were asked to pass the bridge to the other side. Once we were on the other side of the bridge, the army personals also passed the bridge and left us. For a moment I could not understand what it was all about. Then I realized the motives of those armies. They got scared that there might be bombs, hidden in the bridge, by militants and so they were reluctant to pass the bridge. Instead of searching the bridge they wanted us to pass the bridge before them so that if there is any danger, we would face it and they would be safe. Had there been any such bombs, then we would be the victim. When nothing happened, they also passed the bridge and went away. We were the guinea pigs for them. I was very angry at their conduct. They have to wake up the people in the midnight to act as their guinea pigs. Instead of safeguarding us, these armies are using the civilian as their shield. But I felt lucky at least as nothing happened to us on that day. I could not sleep the whole night. I would have been a different person or most possibly non-existent, had something happened on that day.

I still remember the words spoken by one of my brother’s friend to me that “We are very much lucky to be alive every single day as anyone can die any day in Manipur from bomb blast, stray bullets or fake encounter. So we have every reason to celebrate everyday.” I think he is right. As a matter of fact, 96 civilian died in encounters in Manipur in 2006. As many as 30 civilians were killed in 2007 and 136 in 2008.