Returning Home after 44 years, Freed UNLF Chief RK Meghen Says He is Ready to Give His Life for Manipur

Guwahati: Separatist leader and chief of the banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF) Rajkumar Meghen alias Sanayaima set foot in his home state Manipur after 44 years on Thursday afternoon.

After reaching the Bir Trikendrajit International Airport, Imphal, at 1:26pm along with his son RK Chinglen, Meghen said, “I will stand by the people’s aspiration. I give my life for the people of Manipur.”

“I am happy for the overwhelming public response and warm welcome accorded to me. I have been away for a long time”, Meghen added.

The rebel leader was received by family members, friends and several organisations at the airport, following which he went to the historical Kangla fort and paid homage to the local deity and left for Chinghei Pukhri.

The 75-year-old leader was taken to Delhi by a team of Intelligence officers, a day after he was released from Guwahati Central Jail on November 9.

Meghen, accompanied by Chinglen and lawyer M Gunedhor Singh, was whisked away by the intelligence officers soon after he stepped out from the jail and kept at an undisclosed guest house in Delhi. Though the reason for taking him to Delhi is unclear, sources said the authorities may wanted to get him onboard on certain decisions regarding the Naga Accord.

Meghen was detained on September 29, 2010, in Dhaka by the agencies in Bangladesh and later handed over to the Indian authorities. On 4 December, he was produced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), who claimed to have arrested the rebel leader from Motihari in Bihar.

The NIA booked him Meghen for "waging a war against the Indian Union under sections 120 (B) of the IPC, 121, 121 (A), 122 of the IPC and 16, 17, 18, 18 (A), 18 (B) & 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 as amended in 2008."

After his arrest, Meghen had said that "in a multi-community region, the idea of peace cannot be achieved without considering the collateral damage of the secondary conflict that emerges out of the meaningless peace process”.

The UNLF chief has been a fairly popular ledaer in the Imphal Valley and the authorities are apprehensive of his presence in Manipur at a time when the protracted 22-year-old Naga peace accord is on the verge of being sealed between the Centre and Naga groups, led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah).