Imphal/New Delhi:
A convoy of police commandos from Manipur entered the India-Myanmar border town of Moreh on Tuesday evening following the killing of a senior officer by insurgents. The commandos, ambushed by insurgents, pushed through and reached the city at midnight.
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Manipur police sent reinforcements to the border town, 115 km from the capital Imphal, after police officer Chingtham Anand was shot dead by an insurgent sniper while supervising the construction of a helipad.
A combined force of police commandos and the army’s Assam Rifles were ambushed at two places on the hilly Imphal-Moreh highway while heading towards the border town. Three police commandos were injured in the insurgent attack.
Then, despite two ambushes in one day, the police commandos advanced towards Moreh and reached the border town by midnight, sources said. Night images show a long convoy of armored SUVs and other vehicles entering Moreh.
The Manipur government extended the mobile internet ban until November 5 to avoid law and order problems following the killing of the police officer, whose colleagues said they remember him as a pleasant, cheerful officer who maintained a good rapport with locals .
The Manipur government said in a statement after an emergency Cabinet meeting yesterday that a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against an organization called ‘World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council’ (WKZIC) for issuing a statement on October 24 asking ‘volunteers ‘ the Kuki-Zo community was asked to take up arms.
The WKZIC in the statement was quoted as saying that the Kuki National Army and other insurgent groups cannot “join the war” due to the tripartite suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Center and the state government, so they needed “volunteers”.
At least 25 Kuki insurgent groups have signed the SoO agreement, which requires them to stay in designated camps and keep their weapons in a locked warehouse for regular joint supervision with security forces.
Kuki civil society groups, meanwhile, claimed in statements that the ambushes were shootings involving village volunteers due to alleged indiscriminate use of force by police commandos. The Kuki groups alleged that the Manipur government has sent state forces to Moreh to harass citizens and have demanded the Center to withdraw police from the border town.
Manipur Police commandos have arrested at least 10 Myanmar residents in as many days for looting the houses of Moreh residents who fled the border town when ethnic clashes broke out on May 3 between the hill-majority Kuki tribes and the Meiteis with a majority in the valley.
While the ethnic violence in Manipur reportedly stems from the Meities’ demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes category, many leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, have said that the entry of illegal immigrants is one of the main factors behind the unrest in the northeastern state, which is ruled by the BJP.
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