Imphal/Guwahati
On the concluding day of his Manipur visit on Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had appealed to all concerned to surrender their weapons to the security forces and administration. He had warned that a search-and-combing operation would be carried out in the State from Friday and anyone found to possess any weapon would be prosecuted.
The appeal and the warning bore fruit as more than 140 weapons including self-loading rifles, carbine, AK and INSAS rifles, light machine guns, pistols, M16 rifles, smoke gun/tear gas, sten gun and grenade launcher were surrendered on Friday. The weapons were all service pattern and prohibited weapons. As many as 2,000 weapons were looted from the police armoury after ethnic violence erupted a month ago.
This even as curfew has been removed from five Manipur districts and relaxed in other areas.
Officials said the situation in Manipur was by and large peaceful in most districts and sporadic incidents of firing at or torching of empty houses by miscreants were becoming rare now as coordinated effort was made by different security agencies.
Shah, who met with several groups during his Manipur visit, had also announced a probe into the violence and a peace committee as part of a plan to restore stability in the state.
He also asked militant groups to follow the rules of Suspension of Operations or SOO. “If rules are broken then action will follow,” he had asserted.
The Centre signed the suspension pact with two Kuki groups in 2008 – the United People’s Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation. Groups affiliated to these two groups – 24 of them – had entered into an SOO pact with the Centre.
Ethnic clashes broke out in the northeastern state on May 3 after a “Tribal Solidarity March” was organised in the state’s hill districts to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. More than 80 people have been killed in the violence.
After a relative lull for over a fortnight, the state witnessed a spurt in clashes and gunfights between militants and security forces on Sunday.
Sources said that as on Friday morning, 37,450 people are staying in 272 relief camps, including community halls.
While Imphal West district has 10 camps with 807 people, Imphal East has 39 camps with 7,183 people, Thoubal 12 camps with 1,408 persons, Bishnupur 58 camps with 8,031 persons and Churachandpur has 63 camps with 8,929 persons.
