Why Manipur should be Ground Zero for India’s 'Detect, Delete, Deport'? 

Manipur must be Ground Zero for India's "Detect, Delete, Deport" policy—the epicentre of an existential crisis driven by unchecked illegal infiltration from Myanmar and Bangladesh. For over three decades, years, this has fueled ethnic violence, mass displacement, poppy cultivation, deforestation, narco-terrorism, and the erosion of indigenous communities' demographic and cultural survival. 

A recent memorandum from the Joint Tribes Council to PM Narendra Modi exposes illegal immigrants seizing ancestral lands and altering political balances. Launching decisive action here—detecting infiltrators, deleting their footholds, and deporting without exception—will affirm India's inviolable borders and protected identity. 

When Union Home Minister Amit Shah finally uttered the resolute words “detect, delete, deport” on December 10, 2025, amid a fiery Lok Sabha debate on electoral reforms and illegal immigration, a wave of profound relief swept through Manipur—as though a crushing burden, borne for far too long, had at last been lifted from the shoulders of its weary people.

For over thirty months, Manipur had endured widespread arson, murders, ethnic cleansing, and the daily indignity of watching their homeland fractured into armed enclaves, even as New Delhi seemed to dismiss the crisis, fuelled by the shadows of unchecked infiltration as a mere local dispute.

The state government has consistently raised concerns over unregulated immigration from Myanmar, pointing to its visible impacts on the state's demographics, contributions to drug trafficking and illicit poppy cultivation, as well as illegal settlements encroaching on reserved and protected forest lands—leading to widespread deforestation—which have significantly heightened ethnic tensions in recent years.

Despite these repeated alerts, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs did not implement decisive measures until recent years, when actions such as ending the Free Movement Regime, initiating border fencing, and directing biometric verification of suspected immigrants were taken.

Manipur’s pleas to scrap the Free Movement Regime, its identification drives, and its warnings that the influx was becoming a powder keg went largely unheeded at the Centre. Only after the state erupted in devastating ethnic violence in May 2023 did the same Union Home Minister begin publicly emphasising the need to secure the border and end the FMR — the very measures Manipur had been desperately demanding for years.

Therefore, the slogan is welcome, but to the mothers still searching for missing daughters and the farmers who can no longer reach their own fields, it sounds very much like locking the stable three years after the horse—and its entire herd—has galloped away.

The tragedy is that these concerns were far from unforeseen. As early as 2022, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh repeatedly warned about the escalating influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar following the 2021 military coup, highlighting their role in establishing unauthorized villages in hill districts such as Chandel, Tengnoupal, Kamjong, and Churachandpur—often through forest encroachments—while fueling illicit poppy cultivation, deforestation, drug trafficking, and shifts in the state's demographic balance that threatened indigenous communities.

From 2019 to May 2023, the state took multiple measures to address the influx of Myanmar nationals, including ongoing arrests of hundreds under the "War on Drugs" campaign in connection with narcotics smuggling and poppy cultivation, as well as border pushbacks. 

On January 18, 2023, the Manipur state government formed a Cabinet Sub-Committee, headed by Tribal Affairs and Hills Minister Letpao Haokip, to identify illegal immigrants and refugees from Myanmar. The panel, which included multi-community representation, conducted verification drives in hill districts from late March to early April.

According to reports from mid-2023 citing the sub-committee's findings (including a submission around April 2023), it identified approximately 2,187 illegal Myanmar immigrants who had set up settlements in 41 locations across four districts: the highest number (1,147) in 13 villages of Tengnoupal district, followed by 881 in villages of Chandel district, 154 in one village in Churachandpur district, and 5 in 24 villages of Kamjong district. This identification exercise was halted following the outbreak of ethnic violence on May 3, 2023.

N Biren Singh emphasised that the unregulated influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar—intensified after the 2021 military coup—was fueling multiple challenges, including the unauthorised establishment of new villages in reserved and protected forest areas, widespread deforestation linked to illicit poppy cultivation for drug trafficking, and a rapidly shifting demographic profile that posed a threat to the state's indigenous communities. He specifically noted that this unchecked migration had resulted in the proliferation of new settlements, exacerbating ethnic tensions and resource strains.

From 2017 to April 2023, Manipur's Forest Department has also evicted 413 families from reserved and protected forests. Notable drives included demolishing 69 structures in Waithou Protected Forest (Thoubal) in June 2022; a violent clash during evictions in Kangchup Chiru Reserved Forest (Kangpokpi) on December 6, 2022, and clearing illegal settlements at K. Songjang in Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forest on February 20–21, 2023.

All of this happened before the violence of 3 May 2023. Delhi’s response throughout that period? Legal sophistry, endless file-pushing, and the quiet insistence that people crossing an unfenced border with AK-47s and Yaba tablets were merely “refugees” enjoying a “cultural affinity” regime. The powder keg did not explode by accident; it was patiently packed, drop by drop, under the watchful but inert gaze of North Block. The human cost of that inertia is now written in blood and ash across the state. 

Every one of these horrors was predicted in writing by the Biren Singh government as early as 2022. Every one of them was met with silence or obstruction from the Centre. The scale of the infiltration is no longer a matter of speculation. On 2 August 2024, Chief Minister Biren Singh placed on record in the Manipur Assembly that 10,675 illegal immigrants had been detected in the state in the preceding five years alone. 

The state government has detected 5,457 post-2021 illegal immigrants in Kamjong district alone as of May 7, with biometric data collected from 5,173 of them. Later on, the Central Government scrapped the Free Movement Regime (FMR) in February 2024 and approved the continuation of fencing along the entire border. 

Meanwhile, in the valley, a quieter but equally deadly infiltration has been underway for decades. Bangladeshi settlers locally called “Miyas” in Assam have systematically engaged in what can only be described as Land Jihad and, in several documented cases, Love Jihad. Fertile wetlands and foothills in Jiribam and Imphal East have been grabbed through forged papers, distress sales or outright intimidation. 

Ancient religious sites and sacred groves are now surrounded by new settlements whose inhabitants have little connection to State history. More insidious is the deliberate targeting of Meitei and Pangal women through orchestrated interfaith marriages followed by forced conversion and isolation from their families—a pattern seen from Kerala to Uttar Pradesh and now alarmingly visible in Assam and Manipur. 

The deepest wound is the poisoning of the centuries-old Meitei–Pangal brotherhood. Manipuri Muslims, whose ancestors fought alongside Meitei kings against Burmese invaders in the eighteenth century, once spoke Manipuri as their mother tongue and celebrated Cheiraoba with their Meitei neighbours. 

If these things continued for another decade, the State is staring at a full-blown demographic invasion as fresh evidence and arrests expose a relentless influx of Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingya infiltrators who are rapidly altering the state’s ethnic and cultural fabric, senior officials and indigenous organisations warned today.

N Biren Singh, in early December 2024 statements to reporters, highlighted concerns over suspected illegal Bangladeshi infiltration as a potential national security threat, following a police operation on November 30, 2024, in which 29 individuals—working at a bakery in the Mayang Imphal Bengoon area of Imphal West district—were apprehended for violating Manipur's Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime. These detainees reportedly held Aadhaar cards issued in Assam and were described in official accounts as suspected infiltrators, underscoring vulnerabilities in document verification and border controls.

On September 20, 2017, former Manipur Assembly Speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh publicly warned that Bangladeshi migrants posed a greater threat than Rohingya Muslims, pointing out that they quickly learn the Manipuri dialect, marry locally, and permanently alter district demographics. On 31 August 2012, in a forty-eight-hour operation, Imphal police arrested forty-nine Bangladeshi nationals for illegal entry – the highest single sweep in recent memory. 

And on September 20, 2012, the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System revealed that seventy-one point five per cent of voters in Jiribam Sub-Division were migrants from outside Manipur, including a large number of Bangladeshis. Civil society leaders say the real numbers are exponentially higher. “Jiribam has already become a Bangladeshi-majority pocket,” a JCILPS spokesperson exposed the reality in the media. 

This incident forms part of a pattern of detections: in April 2021, Thoubal police arrested Bangladeshi national Mohammad Ramjan Ali alias Raja Ali, in Lilong, for residing illegally, initially with an expired passport visa. 

With ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis already tearing the state apart since May 2023, the Bangladeshi-Rohingya infiltration is adding a dangerous third axis to the conflict. Security sources say many new settlers are being used as foot soldiers in land-grab operations and poppy cultivation networks that now span over eleven thousand acres in the hills.

As Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s “detect, delete, deport” directive gains momentum, Manipur’s indigenous organisations are demanding that the Centre immediately launch a special drive to identify and deport all post-1951 Bangladeshi and Rohingya entrants, starting with Jiribam and Lilong.“If Delhi hesitates again,” warned a valley-based student leader, “there will soon be no Manipur left to save.”

On the hillside, the Chin-Kukis from Myanmar exemplify a parallel scam. Seeking "refuge" in Manipur's hills, they exploit the nebulous "Any Kuki Tribes" category in the state's Scheduled Tribes (ST) list—a blanket term added in 2003 that has become a backdoor for illegal citizenship. 

The alarming figure of Illegal immigrants which was disclosed in the state assembly, stunned lawmakers and civil society alike, with sources describing Kamjong as “ground zero for the organised settlement of Chin-Zo migrants who rapidly blend into Kuki-Zo villages, acquire documents under the controversial “Any Kuki Tribes” category, and fuel both the ongoing ethnic conflict and the explosive spread of poppy cultivation.

Several Indigenous organisations have termed the Kamjong revelations “only the tip of the iceberg,” warning that similar undetected clusters exist across Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur and Ukhrul districts, pushing Manipur closer to irreversible demographic collapse.

Reports from various sources highlight how migrants from Myanmar's Chin Hills and Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts use this loophole to claim ST benefits, obtain voter IDs, and settle permanently. This isn't charity; it's colonisation.

Take the specific case of December 23, 2023: Over 500 Kuki refugees from Myanmar were initially sheltered at Phaikok and Ramphoi Thana villages in Kamjong District, amid fresh fighting across the border. Reports indicate more than 500, including children, poured in that winter. 

But here's the sleight of hand—they were gradually and unofficially shifted to Chassad village, where the Manipur government had constructed prefabricated buildings in the aftermath of a 2019-2020 Naga-Kuki land clash that left families homeless and villages torched. That clash, rooted in territorial disputes, saw houses burned and vehicles destroyed in retaliation between communities. 

Now, those very structures—meant for rehabilitation—are repurposed as staging grounds for new "citizens."These refugees, after 2-3 years of quiet integration, morph into "bonafide" Indians under the "Any Kuki Tribes" umbrella. Documents materialise, votes are cast, and suddenly, they're demanding ST rights, land, and even separation. 

This modus operandi isn't new; it's practised from time immemorial, as evidenced by demographic shifts in hill districts where pre-1961 populations have been outnumbered. UNHCR estimates 64,300 Myanmar nationals in India since 2021—the real figure is likely triple, with Manipur bearing the brunt.

The push to delete "Any Kuki Tribes" from Manipur's ST list—recommended by the state cabinet in 2018 and again on 2 January 2023—has met fierce resistance from certain Kuki groups, who view it as an existential threat to their identity and rights. 

This resistance has deepened fissures: while Thadou Inpi Manipur and Meitei Alliance petition the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry for immediate removal, calling AKT a "politically motivated loophole for foreigners," Kuki groups counter with accusations of "majoritarian conspiracy." 

The debate exposes the stakes: for proponents of deletion, AKT is a Trojan horse for infiltration; for opponents, it's a shield against cultural genocide. 

Manipur today stands at the edge of Balkanisation. Concede the demand for a separate Kuki homeland carved out of Manipur’s territory and tomorrow every hill district with a post-1960s migrant majority will ask for the same. The Kuki demand for a separate administration is not about “tribal rights”; it is about consolidating a post-facto homeland created by illegal immigration and narco-terrorism. 

Sensing this instability in the region, the Arambai Tenggol has repeatedly highlighted concerns over "unregulated cross-border movement" across Manipur's porous borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, renewing its longstanding demand for the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state in accordance with constitutional provisions. 

In a recent statement issued ahead of President Droupadi Murmu's visit to Manipur in December 2025, the group invoked a Supreme Court observation that illegal immigrants and unauthorised foreign nationals do not enjoy the same legal protections as Indian citizens, arguing that robust verification mechanisms are indispensable for preserving demographic balance, ensuring social stability, and upholding national security. 

The Union of India will dissolve into a patchwork of ethnic cantons held together by nothing more than Delhi’s cheques and the Indian Army’s fatigue. That is why Amit Shah’s belated slogan must be converted into immediate, ruthless action—and Manipur must be the starting point, not Assam, not Tripura, not Bengal. 

Begin with a National Register of Citizens using 1951 (or at the very least 1961) as the cut-off. Any cut-off later than 1961 is an open invitation to demographic fraud.

No exceptions for “refugees fleeing persecution.” India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention; we have no legal obligation to grant permanent settlement. Myanmar Chin-Kuki entrants post-2021 must go back the moment the situation stabilises. Those who came between 1964 and 2021 under the guise of “refugees” must face the same scrutiny as Bangladeshi infiltrators in Assam.

 The people of Manipur—valley and hill alike—have already paid for the Centre’s complacency with thirty months of unspeakable suffering. They have earned the right to see the Indian state act with the same ferocity it shows when Punjab’s borders are breached or when Ladakh sees Chinese incursions.

The unchecked influx of illegal immigrants poses an existential threat to Manipur's indigenous communities, demographic integrity, forest resources, and national security through rampant deforestation, drug trafficking, and arms proliferation. Any individual—be it politicians, civil society organizations, human rights activists, or others—who actively opposes the essential measures of detection, detention, and deportation of these illegal entrants, or resists the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur, is effectively aiding and abetting forces that undermine India's sovereignty and the survival of its native populations. 

Such opposition amounts to harbouring illegal immigrants and betraying the nation; these elements must be unequivocally treated as enemies of the state and prosecuted rigorously under the full force of existing laws to safeguard Manipur and the country at large.

If the Centre cannot summon the political will to act in a small state of 3.2 million people, it will never act when the theatre becomes 1.5 billion. Manipur must become the pilot. Manipur is the frontline: victory here halts the crisis from spreading across the Northeast and the nation.

Not Assam. Not Tripura. Not even Bengal. Manipur first. Why? Because Manipur is India’s frontier conscience. What happens here today will happen in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram tomorrow. The same networks that smuggle Yaba tablets and AK-47s into Manipur are already active in Mizoram’s Champhai district. The same demographic anxieties that exploded in Imphal Valley are simmering in Tripura’s mixed districts and Assam as well. 

Manipur represents India's final chance to etch a firm boundary. The Clarion call of "Detect, Delete, Deport" must be an unyielding national resolve to safeguard sovereignty, restore demographic integrity, and prevent the erosion of indigenous identity amid unchecked infiltration.