Two cadres of Myanmar-based militant outfit held in Manipur, arms seized

Two cadres of CKLA nabbed by security forces in Manipur with opium and huge quantity of arms.: Courtesy Nagaland Post

Agencies, October 25, 2023: Two active cadres of a Myanmar based militant group were nabbed with opium and large quantity of arms and ammunition even as police recovered huge caches of arms, ammunition and explosives in the continuing joint operations with the security forces in the fringe and vulnerable areas of troubled Manipur on Tuesday.

The two cadres of Chin Kuki Liberation Army (CKLA) , which Manipur chief minister claimed to be a Myanmar based militant group, were arrested during a joint operation by state police and Central security forces at Chaljang, a village in Manipur’s Churachandpur district bordering Myanmar on Monday.

The police said they seized 2.5 kg of opium and a large quantity of arms including sniper gun and ammunition and Rs 4,86,500 in cash from the cadres.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, in a Facebook post, claimed that CKLA is a Myanmar based militant group.

“In a major breakthrough of the Manipur police and Central armed forces, multiple weapons, ammunition, drugs and cash have been apprehended from Myanmar-based militant group CKLA. (CHIN KUKI LIBERATION ARMY) Myanmar based,” Singh wrote in his Facebook page.

Earlier, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took up cases wherein it was particularly stated that there exists a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh-based leadership of terror outfits to wage war against the government of India by exploiting the current unrest in Manipur, he further wrote.

Meanwhile, a joint team of Bishnupur district police, column of 2 Mahar and a platoon of E129 CRPF recovered at least 11 mine bombs among arms, ammunition and explosives at Gelbung, a village along the inter-district border between Bishnupur and Churachandpur.

The operation was launched based on information about the caching of explosives, arms and ammunition near the abandoned Kuki village area by miscreants.

The operation was conducted Tuesday morning, from 6pm after cordoning the area and lasted till around 7.30 am, the source said. In another joint operation of the Kakching district police and troops of BSF assisted by the VDF personnel of the district, a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were also recovered. The operation was conducted at the hill range near Wangoo Laipham village bordering Churachandpur district on Tuesdsay morning

A small amount of suspected PEK along with the fuse was also recovered, the source said.

It may be noted that a total of 5,669 different types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different kinds of rounds of ammunition were looted by mobs and individuals after ethnic riots broke out in Manipur on May 3.

Till September, around 1,344 of the looted arms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were recovered in intensified search operations since last week September.

The operations were conducted after the state government, on September 22 last, warned those guilty to to surrender the looted weapons within 15 days. The ethnic violence in Manipur between Meitei and Kuki communities was triggered on May 3 and has since left at least 175 people dead and 50,000 displaced apart from thousands of houses belonging to both the communities being torched.

Source: Nagaland Post