In response to Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla’s appeal, around 300 looted weapons, including many sophisticated arms, and a large cache of varied ammunition have been returned to various security forces during the past week, officials said on Thursday.
A senior police official said that more such looted arms and ammunition are likely to be returned to the authorities in the coming days.
The returned 300 looted arms include AK series rifles, carbines, self-loading rifles (SLR), single-barrel rifles, and mortars.
In a positive step, radical Meitei outfit Arambai Tenggol is likely to return over 200 arms and thousands of pieces of ammunition to the Manipur Police on Thursday or Friday, the official, who refused to be identified, said.
According to various reports during the ethnic riots between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities since May 3, 2023, more than 6,000 different types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of pieces of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and outposts by the mobs and militants.
The security forces, so far, have recovered a substantial number of the looted arms.
After the Governor’s appeal made on February 20 to return the looted arms and ammunition, almost every day during the past week individuals and groups have been returning looted arms to Manipur Police, Army, Assam Rifles and other security forces in various districts, including Kangpokpi, Churachandpur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Kakching, Thoubal, and Bishnupur.
Manipur Director General of Police Rajiv Singh earlier said that arms and ammunition kept by a section of people must be returned to the authorities and dialogue between the warring communities would facilitate the restoration of peace and normalcy in the state.
He had said that the “reduction of weaponisation of the society” would greatly help normalise the situation and restore peace. He said that arms and ammunition which are still there in the society should return to the security forces, from where they were taken away or looted.
“Manipur Police and other Central forces are working round the clock to recover the arms and ammunition that were looted from the police and other security forces after the ethnic violence started in the state in May last year,” Singh had told the media.
During the search and combing operations in various districts, the Army, Assam Rifles, Manipur Police and other forces, during the past week, have dismantled over half a dozen illegal bunkers, set up by the armed groups and village volunteers of different communities. The security forces also destroyed illegal poppy plantations in vast areas in various hill districts. They also arrested more than 50 cadres of various militant outfits and armed groups including the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), the Kangleipak Communist Party-People’s War Group (KCP-PWG), and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) outfits.
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