Category: MANIPUR

• IMPHAL

Gen Malik (retd), refferring to a tweet by Lt Gen L. Nishikanta Singh (retd), tweeted: "An extraordinarily sad call from a retired Lt Gen from Manipur. Law & order situation in Manipur needs urgent attention at the highest level."

A mob burnt down a warehouse near the Imphal palace grounds on Friday evening and then clashed with personnel of the Manipur's Rapid Action Force (RAF) when the security personnel tried to prevent them.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, whose house in Imphal was vandalised and set on fire by a mob, said that despite the presence of central forces, the law and order situation in Manipur has totally collapsed.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, whose house in Imphal was vandalised and set on fire by a mob, said on Friday that despite the presence of a huge number of central forces, the law and order situation in Manipur has totally failed.

According to police officials, a mob of 200 men and women attacked the Central Minister's residence late Thursday night. Singh, who is also the Minister of state for Education, is currently in Delhi.

In a fresh incident of violence, assailants burnt the official residence of Manipur's Industry Minister Nemcha Kipgen in the Lamphel area in Imphal West district late on Wednesday evening, officials said.

Eminent theatre personality Ratan Thiyam on Wednesday pulled out of the Manipur peace committee, constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last week to facilitate the peacemaking process among various ethnic groups of the state.

A police official said that heavily armed militants attacked the village late on Tuesday night and fired at the villagers with automatic weapons killing nine people on the spot and injuring 23 others, including women.

At least nine villagers were killed and 25 others injured when suspected militants attacked Khamelock village in Imphal East district and fired indiscriminately, police said on Wednesday.

Altogether 1,040 sophisticated arms and 13,601 pieces of ammunition of different kinds have been recovered out of thousands of weapons looted by by mobs, and extremists from the security forces after the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, officials said on Tuesday.

In a significant development, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as part of the efforts to restore peace and normalcy in violence-hit Manipur, has held a closed-door meeting with the state's Kuki tribal leaders and Kuki rebel groups in Guwahati.

Both Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister N. Biren Singh have earlier appealed to people to surrender their weapons and no legal action would be taken if the people deposit their arms voluntarily.

Also on Saturday, the Central government announced that it has constituted a Peace Committee with Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey as the Chairperson in an effort to bring normalcy to the violence-hit state.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed six FIRs and formed a special team to probe the alleged conspiracy related to the ethnic violence in Manipur, officials said.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal noted that the Manipur High Court is already hearing the matter, therefore there is no need to duplicate the proceedings.

To flush out the militancy and their hideouts, the Army and other central forces continued their counter-insurgency operation and to avoid mistrust, 'executive magistrates' will accompany the forces during the operations.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of valley-based civil society organisation, said that local youths were not willing to surrender arms as attacks by militants are intensifying.

Security forces and mobs destroyed camps of Kuki militants in different districts even as sporadic incidents of violence were reported from different parts of violence-hit Manipur, officials said on Monday.

Security forces in Manipur have recovered 790 sophisticated and automatic arms and 10,648 ammunition that were looted from the police and various other establishments during the ethnic riots that broke out on May 3, an official said on Monday.

Those non-tribal Meiteis living on the hills have fled to the valley and the tribal Kukis who inhabited the valley moved out to the hills clearly showing a trust deficit between the two communities and different geographical locations further widening differences.

The security forces in Manipur have recovered 40 sophisticated automatic arms that were looted when the ethnic riots broke out, from the police and various security forces, an official said on Saturday.

Padma Shri awardee (2007) and prominent theatre artiste Sabitri Heisnam said on Friday that the Kuki militants, who are under Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement, are targeting the common villagers residing in the nearby foothills in Manipur.

After Union Home Minister Amit Shah's appeal, 140 various types of weapons, looted earlier from the police and various security forces, have been surrendered at different districts in Manipur, officials said on Friday.

Commissioner, Home, H. Gyan Prakash, in a fresh notification extending the suspension of Internet services till June 5, said that the Director General of Police, Manipur, reported that there are still reports of incidents like arson of houses and premises.

Amidst the month-long ethnic violence in Manipur, the state government on Thursday appointed senior IPS officer Rajiv Singh, belonging to the neighbouring Tripura cadre, as Director General of Police (DGP) replacing incumbent state police chief P. Doungel.