Strictly monitoring situation: Kuldiep Singh
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 14 2023:
Informing that the government is strictly mon-itoring the situation in order to restore peace and normalcy, security advisor to the gov-ernment of Manipur Kuldiep Singh said that security forces are kept on alert for deploy-ment in any location where skirmishes are reported.
Addressing a press confer-ence at the CM s secretariat here on Sunday, Kuldiep said that a gunfight took place in Lairampat area on Saturday when armed militants at-tacked a foot patrol team of the Army.
In the incident, two army personnel were injured.
He also informed that a body was found underneath a bridge in Moirang Kumam Leikai on Saturday afternoon while un-known assailants burned four houses in Torbung Sabal in the night.
The arsonists fled the scene when BSF personnel posted nearby rushed to the spot.
Three more companies of BSF have been deployed in the area, he said while adding that tension is high in the border area of Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts.
The security advisor also said a mob seized five dumper trucks in Khollep village area under Saparmeina police sta-tion on Saturday morning.
The mob burned two trucks while the remaining three along with all the drivers have been res-cued.
Instruction has been issued to conduct an enqui-ry into the misuse of power to take revenge on two local residents of Sangaiprou by an assistant commandant (Daniel Hmar) of a central paramilitary force.
Appropriate action will be taken up against the officer based on the findings of the enquiry, he informed.
The security advisor further informed that curfew relax-ation hours are being extended gradually.
While the relaxation hour remains same for the five valley districts, Jiribam district magistrate has extended the relaxation hour from 5 am to 3 pm.
For Tengnoupal, Chan-del and Kangpokpi districts, curfew has been relaxed from 6 am to 1 pm, and there is no curfew relaxation for Chu-rachandpur and Pherzawl districts.
On the other hand, there is no curfew in Tamen-glong, Senapati, Kamjong, Ukhrul and Noney districts, he added.
So far, police have registered 385 FIRs and 30 persons have been booked.
The death toll has reached 73 out of which 41 has been confirmed as related with the clash.
Out of the total deaths, 25 were recorded in Imphal West, 13 in Imphal East, 18 in Chura-chandpur, eight in Bishnupur, five in Kangpokpi, two each in Tengnoupal and Thoubal.
Number of injured victims is 243 while 1809 houses have been burned.
As of Sunday, 456 snatched arms have been recovered and 3128 persons have been evacuated to saf-er locations through Imphal International Airport, he in-formed.
Following the incidents of armed Kuki militants attacking villages in foothill areas, secu-rity forces have been kept on high alert.
Repeated inspection of So0 camps are being carried out by a joint team of Army and state police.
Even though 62 companies of CRPF and CAPF as well as 126 columns of army are being deployed in foothill areas, they cannot cover the entire foothill areas.
As such, security forces are being sent in as soon as there are reports of such armed attacks in any location, he said.
Regarding the blockade on national highways enforced by mob, the security advisor disclosed that efforts are on to hold negotiation.
In the meantime, measures are taken up to resume movement of transporters along NH 37.He then appealed to the public to refrain from spreading un-verified information but to get verification from the official helpline numbers, police and authorised officials.
Maintaining that the gov-ernment alone cannot re-store peace and normalcy in the state, he appealed to the public to give any suggestion to the government and also urged the media including na-tional media to refrain from publishing reports that might incite further clash, and also to verify any report from the government agencies.