Imphal, May 4 (IANS) Manipur Police and other security forces have launched a massive manhunt to nab the gunmen responsible for giving a reported ‘gun salute’ by some armed cadres as part of the tribute to those killed in ethnic violence in Kangpokpi district, officials said on Sunday.
A police official said that the police have registered an FIR in connection with the gun salute incident at Saikul in Kangpokpi district on Saturday (May 3). He said that local leaders and elders were summoned to the police station and gathered information about the armed cadres who accorded the ‘gun salute’.
“Raids have been conducted in different areas to arrest the gunmen. Five single-barrel guns and camouflage uniforms have been seized. Raids would continue to arrest the miscreants and seize the firearms. Organisers of the programme would be dealt with as per law,” a police statement said. The official said that, as per law, except for security personnel, no one can display guns in any event or can not accord a gun salute to deceased persons.
“The police continue to urge the public to return the looted and illegally held arms, ammunition and explosives to the police or nearest security forces immediately,” the official said.
Both the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar community organisations organised separate programmes on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the outbreak of ethnic conflict in Manipur.
Normal life was badly affected in Manipur’s valley region and Kuki-Zo-Hmar inhabited areas on Saturday as the Meitei community’s leading body, Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), called the shutdown in the valley region, comprising six districts, while the Zomi Students Federation (ZSF) and the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) have imposed the shutdown in the hill districts.
The COCOMI also organised a public convention as part of the observance of two years of ethnic violence. On Saturday evening, the COCOMI held a candlelight tribute to the martyrs and victims of ethnic violence at Kangla Nongpok Thong.
Till March 6, around 1,000 looted and illegally held weapons, including many sophisticated arms, and a huge cache of ammunition, have been returned to the security forces since Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla appealed for the first time on February 20. The first initiative to recover the looted and illegally held arms began on May 31, 2023, when former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh made an appeal to all concerned to surrender the firearms looted from security forces and police armouries.
Officials said that before Singh’s resignation as Chief Minister on February 9, a total of 3,422 firearms had been voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and police stations in different districts. Various official reports, political parties claimed that during the ethnic riots, which broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, over 6,020 varied types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and police outposts by the mobs, attackers and militants.
–IANS
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