On May 8, when Imphal was reeling under curfew in the aftermath of the May 3 violence, the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) — a specialised unit of the State police — raided a property in the Mantripukhri area of the city. It seized 77 gunny bags, suspected to contain poppy seeds, and 120 kyat, Myanmar’s currency. The NAB said in a May 9 statement that it highly suspected that the house owner belonged to an international drug cartel.
Meitei civil society groups claim that the May 3 violence — which had claimed at least 65 lives — was actually a retaliation by some tribal groups to a series of actions taken by the N. Biren Singh government, including the “war on drugs”, and the clearing of reserved forest areas in the hills, removing allegedly illegal occupants. The Mantripukhri raid by NAB shows that the State government was doubling down on narcotics even in the middle of a serious law-and-order situation where more than 35,000 persons were displaced.
