Manipur Police again appeal for return of looted arms, ammunition and explosives

Imphal, Nov 24 (IANS) The Manipur Police have once again urged all concerned people and organisations to return the looted arms, ammunition and explosives to the government.

A senior official said on Sunday that all district police authorities and police stations have launched a campaign and urged the people and organisations to deposit the looted arms, ammunition and explosives in the nearest police stations and police posts at the earliest.

“If the people and the organisations do not deposit the arm, ammunition and explosives within a certain period, the government would be forced to take severe legal actions against the person concerned and the organisations,” the official said.

The official said that after the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities began on May 3 last year, 5,669 different types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of rounds of different kinds of ammunition were looted by different organisations, mobs and individuals.

Chief Security Advisor to the Manipur government Kuldiep Singh last week said that so far, 3,000 looted arms were recovered and operations are going on to recover the remaining looted arms and ammunition.

He said that the Army, the Assam Rifles, the BSF, the CRPF, the SSB, and the ITBP, the Manipur Police, police commandos are individually and jointly conducting raids and search operations to recover the looted arms, ammunition and explosives.

Another police officer said that search operations as well as area domination are being conducted by the Central and state security forces in the fringe and vulnerable areas of hill and valley districts.

During the search operations, many illegal bunkers and barracks, set up by the militants and various armed groups in the forested areas, were destroyed and huge numbers and quantities of various items and materials recovered, the official said.

Providing adequate security escorts for the movement of goods-laden trucks and other vehicles carrying essential items along the National Highways and Highways has been ensured, he said.

Strict security measures are taken up in all vulnerable locations and a security convoy is provided in sensitive stretches in order to ensure free and safe movement of vehicles.

A total of 105 Nakas (checkpoints) were installed in different districts of Manipur, both in the hills and the valley to check the movement of vehicles and other inimical elements, he said.

--IANS

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