Additional Central forces arrive in violence-hit Manipur

Imphal, Nov 21 Additional Central forces are starting to arrive in trouble-torn Manipur even as there have been no fresh incidents of violence in the northeastern state during the past four days, officials said on Thursday.

A senior official of the Home Department said that the additional Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have started arriving in Manipur since Tuesday and they are being deployed in vulnerable, mixed-population, sensitive, and fringe areas of both hill and valley districts.

Amid the escalating violence in Manipur, especially in the Jiribam district, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on November 18 decided to provide an additional 50 companies (around 5,000 personnel) of CAPF to Manipur to deal with the prevailing law and order situation, the official said.

"Of the CAPF already arrived in Manipur, one company is of women personnel. The CAPF comprises the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), the BSF (Border Security Force) and other paramilitary forces," he said.

The MHA decided to provide additional 50 companies of CAPF, after Union Home Minister Amit Shah in an urgent meeting reviewed the situation in Delhi in the violence-ridden state on November 17 and 18.

Top MHA and security force officials were present in these meetings.

The MHA last week provided another 20 companies of CAPF -- 15 of the CRPF and five of the BSF.

"There have been no fresh incidents of violence in any of the districts in Manipur since Monday," the Home Department official said.

Widespread violence took place in different districts of Manipur, especially in Imphal East, Imphal West and Jiribam after three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had been “abducted by militants” from a relief camp in Borobekra Sub division in Jiribam district on November 11 and their bodies recovered on November 15 and 16.

According to police officials, the six people were “kidnapped” after an encounter between the CRPF and the suspected militants leading to the killing of 10 suspected Kuki-Zo militants in the Jiribam district on November 11.

All Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal organisations, however, claimed that these 10 slain people were “Village Volunteers”. After the post-mortem in the Silchar Medical College, their bodies are now kept at a morgue in a Churachandpur hospital.

Source: IANS