Manipur Violence Intensifies: Mob Storms Army Camp In Imphal To Loot Armoury

New Delhi: A huge mob of hundreds of people on Wednesday stormed a camp of the 1 Manipur Rifles in Imphal to raid its armoury, forcing security personnel to fire many rounds in the air and the state government to enforce a 24-hour curfew in the capital. They said that hundreds of members of the majority community aimed at the Manipur Rifles camp, near the Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister’s Office in Imphal West district. “Police, with the help of CRPF and Army units, stopped the mob from looting the armoury after losing some weapons to them and made them retreat,” news agency PTI quoted an official as saying.

Officials said that security forces fired many rounds in the air to scatter the mob. After the incident, the Manipur government cancelled the daily curfew relaxation from 5 am to 10 pm in Imphal East and West districts “with immediate effect due to worsening law and order situation”, as per an official order. Tension had been rising in the state capital after an SDPO - a deputy superintendent of police from the majority community - was killed by tribal rebels at Moreh town on Tuesday morning.

In another incident, three police personnel got bullet wounds when rebels ambushed a convoy of the state force at Sinam in Tengnoupal district on Tuesday afternoon. The convoy was sent to Moreh as backup to help in carrying out operations.

Meanwhile, the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) has announced a 48-hour shutdown in the state from midnight of November 1 to protest against the deployment of more police commandos in Moreh town in Tengnoupal district, where the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) was shot dead on October 31.

In a statement, KSO said it strongly opposes “the ongoing presence and extra deployment of Manipur police commandos in Moreh town despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s promise to pull out all state forces within three days during his trip to the border town”.

Shah visited the town next to Myanmar in late May, after ethnic conflict started in the northeastern state. The KSO claimed that the police commandos were abusing the residents of the town after the killing of the SDPO. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, another group of the Kuki-Zo community, also made similar accusations.

SDPO Chingtham Anand, who lived in Imphal, was shot dead by a sniper while he was on duty supervising the cleaning of the grounds of Eastern Shine School for building a helipad together by the police and BSF. The killed police officer was a former student of the Sainik School Imphal and the alumni association of the school denounced the killing.

The association on Wednesday asked the central and state governments to catch the culprits. The state has been plagued by repeated episodes of violence since ethnic clashes broke out in May. More than 180 people have died since then.

The clashes have happened over various complaints that both sides have against each other, but the main cause of the crisis has been a move to give Meiteis Scheduled Tribe status, which has been reversed later and an attempt to evict tribals living in protected forest areas.

Meiteis make up about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mainly in the Imphal Valley, while tribals, which include Nagas and Kukis, make up 40 per cent and live mostly in the hill districts.