Amid Rising Tensions, Amit Shah Reviews Security in Ethnically Divided Manipur

PTI, NEW DELHI, NOV 17, 2024 :  Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed the security situation in Manipur and directed top officials to take all possible steps to ensure peace in the northeastern state, sources said. Shah held the meeting soon after he returned from Maharashtra, where he had cancelled his election rallies. The Home Minister reviewed the situation in Manipur with top security officials and directed them to take all possible steps to ensure peace, the sources said. Shah is expected to hold another detailed meeting with top officers on Monday and take further steps, they said.

The move came as the situation in Manipur, which has been reeling from ethnic strife since May last year, continued to be volatile following protests and violence after the recovery of bodies of women and children. Irate mobs set ablaze the residences of three more BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley. This occurred even as security forces foiled an attempt to storm the ancestral residence of Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, officials said.

The fresh incidents of violent protests took place on Saturday night, even as an indefinite curfew was clamped after people, agitated by the killing of three women and three children by militants in Jiribam district, attacked the residences of three state ministers and six MLAs earlier on Saturday. Enraged people torched the houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam's BJP MLA Y. Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha's BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district, and Khundrakpam's Congress MLA Th. Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, the officials said.

The legislators and their family members were not at home when the mob stormed their residential compounds, vandalized properties, and set the houses on fire, police said, adding that the houses were partially burnt in the incidents. The Manipur Police on November 11 claimed 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents, in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons, fired indiscriminately at Borobekra Police Station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district. Hours later, suspected militants allegedly abducted six civilians, including women and children, from the same district, police had claimed.

On Saturday, the Union Home Ministry said that all security forces deployed in Manipur have been directed to take necessary steps to restore order and peace in the state, where the situation remained "fragile" in the past few days. It said armed miscreants from both communities in conflict have been indulging in violence, leading to unfortunate loss of lives and disruption in public order. The Home Ministry said strict action would be initiated against anyone trying to indulge in violent and disruptive activities.

The Centre had on Thursday reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur's six police station areas, including the violence-hit Jiribam. More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year. It started after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organized in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.