New Delhi, August 11 2009: The killing of two persons, including a pregnant woman, during an alleged fake encounter in Manipur last month was not a one off incident.

The northeastern state has, in fact, witnessed a sudden spurt in such encounters by trigger-happy cops - putting it among the top in the list of states reporting such cases.

The number of "fake" encounter cases, registered by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the last over three years, shows that Manipur reported the second highest number of such incidents during 2008-09 and 2009-10 (till July this year).

While a big state like Uttar Pradesh has consistently been reporting the highest number of alleged fake encounter cases, Manipur has witnessed a substantial rise - from only one case during 2007-08 to 16 in 2008-09 and six during the first four months (April-July) during 2009-10 .

A senior home ministry official said: "The rising figures could well explain the current public unrest in Manipur where people have been on the street against trigger-happy cops ever since the state witnessed the killing of two persons in an encounter on July 23" .

Though state chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh ordered a judicial inquiry and suspended six commandos of the Manipur Police involved in the incident last week, people in the state have been asking the government to look into the reason of the 'rising number' of alleged fake encounter cases.

Even officials here are quite convinced about 'high-handedness' on the part of the state police as they pointed out that while other states like UP have been showing a decrease in the number of "fake" encounter cases, Manipur has been showing an increase which is quite disturbing.

Another small state like Uttarakhand too, of late, joined the club of having a high number of alleged fake encounter cases.

It recently witnessed the killing of a 24-year-old person - a resident of Ghaziabad, UP - who was allegedly shot dead by the Dehradun Police.

Incidentally, violence-hit Jammu and Kashmir has not reported any case to NHRC this year or during 2008-09.While the state reported two alleged fake encounter cases during 2007-08, it reported four such incidents in 2006-07 .

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