Amid escalating violence, MHA to send 50 more companies of central forces to Manipur

Amid the escalating violence in Manipur, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday decided to provide an additional 50 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to the state government to deal with the prevailing law and order situation, officials said. 

A top Manipur Home Department official said that the 50 companies of the CAPF (around 5,000 personnel) would soon arrive in the state and they would be deployed in the trouble-torn and militancy-affected districts.

The MHA last week provided 20 companies of CAPF -- 15 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and five of the Border Security Force (BSF).

The CRPF companies rushed to violence-hit Manipur from neighbouring Assam while the BSF companies came from Tripura.

A Manipur Home Department official, referring to the MHA communication, said that the fresh 50 companies, comprising the CRPF, the BSF and other paramilitary forces, would arrive in the state in a day or two and they would also be deployed in trouble-torn, vulnerable, mixed population, and militancy-hit districts.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who on Sunday reviewed the situation in the violence-ridden state, would hold another important meeting on Monday to study the situation and is likely to finalise some new strategy.

Officials in Imphal, quoting the Delhi meeting decisions said that Home Minister Shah directed the senior security officials to take effective steps to prevent violence and maintain peace.

They said that the Home Minister rushed to the national capital on Sunday after cutting short his campaign in poll-bound Maharashtra and held a meeting with top Home Ministry and security officials.

"Chief Security Advisor to the Manipur government, Kuldiep Singh, Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi, and Director General of Police Rajiv Singh are likely to attend Monday's meeting virtually from Imphal," the officials said.

Meanwhile, a protester was shot dead during a clash between security forces and a mob in Manipur's violence-hit Jiribam district on Sunday night.

A police official in Imphal said that a youth identified as K. Athouba, 21, was killed in firing and who actually fired the bullet is under investigation.

However, protesters claimed that the Manipur Police special commando fired to disperse the mob, and the youth was killed in the firing and two others were injured. The police official said that the mob was attacking and vandalising properties of various leaders’ houses and political party offices on Sunday night. They were protesting the killing of three women and three children abducted by militants on November 11.

The offices of the Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena and the houses belonging to Jiribam's Independent MLA were ransacked by the mobs, comprising men and women.

The Manipur government also closed all educational institutions for two days -- Monday and Tuesday -- in the curfew-bound five districts -- Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching.

In the extensive violence and attacks by angry mobs on Saturday and Sunday, more than two dozen houses of ministers, MLAs and political leaders and offices of political parties were attacked and vandalised by mobs in several districts, especially in Imphal East and Imphal West districts. This followed the recovery of six dead bodies in Jiribam on November 15 and 16 near the confluence of the Jiri and Barak rivers along the Manipur-Assam border and believed to be of the three women and three children missing since November 11 in Jiribam district.

Manipur Police earlier said that in a November 11 encounter with the CRPF, 10 suspected Kuki militants were killed while in another incident, militants kidnapped 10 people, all belonging to the Meitei community and inmates of a relief camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district’s Borobekra sub-division. According to police, of the 10 kidnapped persons, one person was found alive and rescued and another civilian came back on his own to the police station while the bodies of six others were recovered.