Army nabs 22 miscreants, AR rescues stranded people
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 29 2023: The Army has apprehended 22 armed miscreants who tried to set houses afire in Imphal East district of Manipur, and also recovered weapons from their possession, an official said on Monday.

A Defence spokesperson said that a large number of Army troops were mo-bilised on Sunday night after intelligence inputs suggested armed miscreants were venturing out to bum houses at Sanasabi, Gwaltabi and Shabunkhol Khunao in the hilly region of Imphal East district.

Multiple Mobile Vehicle Check Posts were immediately set up and search op-erations in the area were undertaken.

The official said that at one point of time, Army soldiers were attacked and fired upon by miscreants who were trying to burn the houses.

However, "the Army's proactive and swift operation apprehended 22 mis-creants with weapons and other war-like stores.

The arms recovered from the miscreants include, five 12 bore double barrel rifles, three single barrel rifles, one country made weapon with double bore and one muzzle loaded weapon," the Defence spokesperson said.

The Army's swift action averted the loss of precious lives, houses and other properties besides multiple incidents of arson, the official added.

All the 22 miscreants along with ap-prehended weapons and war-like stores were handed over to Manipur Police.

Meanwhile, PRO IGAR Nand PIB De-fence said that drones, mine-protected vehicles, Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) were mobilised to undertake large scale civilian rescue operations in the aftermath of fresh incidents in Kakching district during which many persons, including two commandos, died and 12 others were injured after armed militants attacked villagers at Sugnu on Sunday.

After fresh incidents at Sugnu and Serou villages, villagers of different communities were stranded in various pockets under the protection of security forces.

The Army and Assam Rifles, incoordi-nation with police, district administration and civil society organisations, evacuated nearly 2,000 Meitei villagers from Serou to Pangaltabi Relief Camp in defence and private vehicles under the protection of the Assam Rifles.

While ferrying the displaced people, aerial surveillance cover was provid-ed by drones, Mine Protected Vehicles and area domination patrols were put in place on the ground to ensure safe and incident-free evacuation, said the PRO.

Medical aid to those in need was given by service doctors.

Similarly, nearly 328 Kuki villagers were also safely evacuated to Sajik Tampak from Sugnu village, they said.

Meanwhile, an uneasy calm prevailed in Manipur, affected by ethnic conflict, a day after a sudden spurt in clashes and firing between militants and security forces, officials said on Monday.

The death toll from clashes a day before rose to five on Monday as three more people, who were undergoing treatment in hospi-tals, succumbed to their injuries, they said.

Army and paramilitary per-sonnel continued combing operations in the Imphal val-ley and surrounding districts, an official said.

The Army operation is aimed at confiscating illegal caches of arms, he said.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Army personnel appre-hended three miscreants from Imphal East district on Sun-day, and later handed over to the Manipur Police, a defence spokesperson said.

The army recovered arms and ammunition from them, he said.

"Responding to specific intelligence about armed miscreants venturing openly with the intention to carry out an attack on security forces in the area of City Conven-tion Centre of Imphal East district, the Army mobilised three columns on Sunday to establish multiple mobile ve-hicle check posts there, the defence spokesperson said.

During the checking, the Army personnel intercepted a car, and on being stopped, the miscreants got down from the vehicle and attempted to escape from there but the security team apprehended them, he said.

'One INSAS rifle with mag-azine, sixty rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, one Chinese hand grenade and one deto-nator were also recovered.

All three miscreants with weap-ons and ammunition were later handed over to Manipur Police," the defence spokes-person said.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said nearly 40 armed militants involved in torching houses and firing at civilians have been killed by security forces since they began an operation to bring peace to the state beset by ethnic rioting.

The latest clashes began af-ter the army and paramilitary forces commenced combing operations to de-arm com-munities in order to bring peace, officials said.

At Phayeng in Imphal West district, one person died on Sunday and another sus-tained bullet injuries after being fired at by suspected Kuki militants, the police officials said.

(With inputs from Agencies) .

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