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Sunday Nov 23, 2008
Ten Lost Tribes Challenge - India: Soldiers, militants and insurgents
Posted by Amir Mizroch
    
LOKTAK LAKE, Manipur - We head to a huge lake called Loktak [Lok is lake in Indian so it's actually Lake Tak]. The lake is huge, some 25 km long and 20 km wide. During WW2 Japanese forces swarmed into Manipur from this direction. This expedition is not all about meeting with Bnei Menashe, it is also going to interesting places that most regular tourists have never been to are not on the tourist map. This is something that Mosh from Shai Bar Ilan tours has done for a living for decades, pioneering routes for Israeli travelers to places that were closed to them. Mosh has gone into every corner of this world to seek out adventures and learning opportunities for Israeli tourists. The Geographical Company he worked for first took Israelis to Eastern Europe when the Iron Curtain fell, and he's also taken Israelis to Yemen, Tunisia and Morocco, as well as further afield in places like China. I think he's one of those people you meet in life that you think to yourself, 'wow, this person has an interesting job'. Back to the lake. Before we get into the area, we are stopped by an army patrol, who tells us to turn back because this area is not open to tourists, and in any case, we don't have the right papers. Mosh and Colonel Auja, the Indian fixer Shai Bar Ilan is using for this expedition, ask to speak to the commanding officer, and it's a general no less. They convince the general that the trip to the observation point at the top of the lake's banks will be quick and low profile, and that because it is an unannounced visit, it is very unlikely that the militants and insurgents hiding out in the lake's thick vegetation would have previous knowledge of a group of tourists here and would not be able to launch a kidnapping or shooting attack against us. Excuse me?? Militants? Insurgents? Kidnappings? What's going on here? This was not on the itinerary, even for a group of hardened Israelis. The colonel explains that there is a deadly game of cat and mouse happening out on the lake between the Indian army and a whole host of militants, be they local separatists, Naga insurgents, Maoist rebels from the Burmese border area, or organized crime squads. To understand how this works I have to describe the lake to you. While it is a huge body of water, much of it is covered by thick vegetation, or man-made islands created by the villagers that live on the banks of the lake. The villagers, fishermen, grew these islands patiently by stacking vegetation and adding to it. Once the 'islands' are big and solid enough, the villagers build small shacks on them to use as temporary homes so that they don't have to sail back and forth to the lake's shores every day. While you can't see it, the 'islands' are not anchored to the lake's floor, so they float, very slowly. It is on these floating islands with thick bushes and vegetation that Indian commandos and insurgents seek each other out and have deadly contact, which takes place mostly at night. Insurgents, carrying arms and explosives, sneak in from the North-Eastern shores of the lake and slip through onto the islands with boats. They move at night trying to avoid Indian army detection. If they get through the Indian lines, they go on to other parts of Manipur and Assa and carry out attacks [there was a series of bombings in Assa state a week before we arrived here that killed dozens of people]. While the arena is relatively quiet right now, fighting could erupt at any moment. "There are probably militants out there on the islands now," the colonel, who once commanded a unit in this area, tells me. Colonel Auja promises the three-star general that if anything happens to us he will take full responsibility. The general, who is in uniform but is also wearing a black leather jacket that makes him look a lot like Idi Amin, accedes and allows us in. He even offers to take some of the more elderly of our group up the steep road in his private command car. This whole section of the lake has been taken over by an Indian army division, the 7th light infantry [a big sign reads 7th- THE ULTIMATE]. The soldiers are dressed in heavy battle gear and their uniform is jungle camouflage, so I'm not sure if it is them who are doing the island fighting on behalf of the Indian army [perhaps the militants hiding out now in the islands are not alone]. The soldiers we see are made up of different races and creeds, and there are some Sikhs amongst them. Looking down into their base as we walk up to the observation point overlooking Loktak, we notice a prayer tent that has several signs and symbols on its mast representing Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and some others I cannot identify [I guess there are no Jewish soldiers in this division]. Eyal, one of the tour guides. explains to us that the army has one tent for all soldiers to pray in, no matter what their religion is, and that this is a very unique and Hindi thing: that all religions are welcome under one roof. By the way, we've been in North-Eastern India for almost one week and I haven't seen one other tourist.
PHOTO: Amir Mizroch
Amir Mizroch is the News Editor at The Jerusalem Post, a writer and an award-winning blogger. For all of Amir's blogs and articles, visit his personal blog Forecast Highs. PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
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