Security being beefed up in violence-hit Kamjong areas in Manipur :::: Cobra force may be deployed :::: Services of Additional BSF companies will be enlisted soon

Additional forces have been inducted for beefing up security measures in violence-hit Kamjong areas in Manipur. 

At least three additional BSF companies may be pressed into service and even Cobra force may be deployed in some areas, sources said. 

Augmenting of other forces is also in the process apparently. 

More than 50 people have been killed and dozens of houses burnt in ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Naga communities across several districts since February.

In the meantime, several civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kamjong district on Sunday staged a torch rally and sit-in protest at Kamjong headquarters, demanding the immediate revocation of the transfer order issued against Kamjong Superintendent of Police Tholu Rocky.

The Manipur Police Service official was posted out following a fatal clash at Chassad. 

Reports in a section of media say villagers in Kamjong alleged a cross-border incursion by Kuki armed elements, particularly the Myanmar-based Kuki National Army-Burma (KNA-B). 

They claimed two Kuki armed individuals were killed in Saturday’s clash at Chassad. The body of the deceased, allegedly a KNA-B cadre, identified by the uniform he was wearing.  

Unknown miscreants on Sunday burnt at least 13 abandoned houses in Kamjong district.

Unknown miscreants, suspected to be militants, burnt down the houses belonging to the Naga community at Pilong and Skipe near the international border with Myanmar, a police statement said.

"Necessary security measures have been taken up in connection with the incidents" say sources.

Earlier in Sunday morning, two Nepali persons sustained injuries when unknown armed miscreants fired upon a car travelling between Gwaltabi to Mahadeva along NH-202 under Litan police station in Ukhrul District.  

Among other organisations the Kamjong Students’ Union condemned what it termed the “character assassination” of the district police chief and opposed the subsequent transfer order. 

Houses burnt in Chassad 

Jay Barange, IPS, who was Addl. SP, Imphal West, has been transferred and posted as SP, Kamjong.

The union maintained that public servants are bound by service rules and regulations and that no individual should fabricate information to tarnish an officer’s reputation without evidence. It also urged the government and police to register an FIR against the source of a social media post allegedly targeting the officer, while demanding the immediate revocation of the transfer order. The other civil society organisations also called for the government to withdraw the order.  

The protest was organised by several civil society organisations, including women’s bodies from Kamjong headquarters, Bungpa Khullen and Saputang, the Kamjong Students’ Union, Zingsho Katamnao Long (Eastern Student Union), the Kamjong Town Committee and the Zingsho Aze Core Committee (South and East).Buy Maps