Face-off at Sugnu as AR blocks police gates
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 02 2023: A huge altercation erupted between personnel of 37 Assam Rifles and state police on Friday morning after the former parked its 'camper' vehicles directly in front of Sugnu Police Sta-tion and SDPO office gates, blocking it entirely.

According to reports culled from the spot, around 8.30 am Friday, a large number of AR personnel led by 37AR Com-mandant Col Ahlawat parked a camper vehicle in front of the main gate of SDPO's of-fice, one bulletproof truck in front of the main gate of Sugnu police station and an-other camper sideway on the Sugnu-Serou road, blocking off the road completely.

The AR troopers then surrounded the police personnel at Sug-nu PS and SDPO office and informed them not to come out of the premises.

Face-off at Sugnu as AR blocks police gates

On being informed that AR had parked and blocked the gates of the PS and SDPO of-fice, Sugnu PS officer in-charge Inspector Riyaz Khan came out of the station and enquired Col Ahlawat of the reason.

The col-onel said that the police failed to stop the public from digging up the road leading to the 37 AR Outpost in Sugnu.

As such, the movement of the outpost's per-sonnel have been restricted and hence, the police must also be restricted.

In response, the OC said that if the police had been informed of the road being dug up, they would have stopped the same in time.

Nonetheless, discussions are being held to repair the road at the earliest.

However, the AR's act of park-ing their vehicles and blocking the gates of the PS and SDPO was blatantly disrespecting Manipur Police.

As news of the blockade spread, commando and po-lice personnel led by Addl SP Wangkhomba, Addl SP Romen-dro, Addl SP Binoy and SDPO Suresh Anthony, who were stationed at the locations, came out of the premises and confronted the CO and person-nel of AR.

Angry at the disre-spect shown against the state police, the police personnel even cocked their firearms and surrounded the AR personnel while advising them to leave the area immediately.

The CO was also questioned on the AR's absence with re-gard to the retrieval of the bodies of those who were gunned down in Sugnu and Serou areas on May 28; during the attack on Thoubal district police commandos by Kuki militants where a havildar was killed; lack of any support during the attack on the team of Kakching district police SP by Kuki militants armed with sophisticated automatic rifles; AR's alleged support of Kuki militants and their (AR) absence when Meitei houses in Sugnu and Serou area were set on fire and civilians shot dead.

Suspicions were also raised whether AR is conspir-ing with Kuki militants under 500 to attack Manipur police, considering the former's ac-tions on Friday.

Shortly after, the AR team drove away the bulletproof truck blocking the gate of Sug-nu PS, followed by the campers parked in front of the SDPO of-fice and sideway on Sugnu-Se-rou road.

The police personnel continued to drive away the AR personnel from the area.

Later, an FIR was registered against the 37 AR team led by its CO for wrongful confinement of the staff and commandos stationed at Sugnu PS and SDPO, and other various sections of 1PC.Meanwhile, with regard to the incident, Kakching district superintendent of police Shrey Vats has stated that the incident occurred due to misunderstandings between 37 AR and police.