Guwahati: With a spate in violence recently, particularly in Jiribam region of Manipur, Central government has decided to rush 20 additional companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) to Manipur to assist the existing security forces in containing the situation.
Sources said that the Ministry of Home Affairs have sanctioned 15 companies of CRPF and five companies of BSF to be sent to Manipur immediately due to the recent spate in violence. With the additional 20 companies of CAPF arriving in the state, there will be a total of 218 companies of central forces deployed in Manipur.
Meanwhile, amid the curfew imposed by the district administration and shutdown call by different tribal organizations, suspected miscreants on Wednesday morning set on fire two trucks carrying essential commodities to the ethnic strife-torn state.
Fresh round of violence started in Manipur's Jiribam district since Thursday when armed miscreants set on fire at least ten houses at a village and allegedly burnt a woman alive.
In a retaliatory attack on Saturday another woman was killed in a village in Bishnupur by armed miscreants.
On Monday, CRPF forces deployed in Jakuradhor area in Jiribam killed ten armed miscreants during an encounter. Police said that the armed miscreants came to attack a police station which had sheltered some displaced families.
Police had also recovered two bodies of civilians from the area even as six persons including three women and three minor children have still remained missing.
The killing of the ten armed miscreants have led to further deterioration of the situation with the Kuki and Hmar organizations terming the ten deceased as 'village volunteers' and not as armed miscreants as claimed by the police. The Kuki and Hmar organizations have also called for shutdown of all the hill areas in protest against the killing by the CRPF personnel.
On Wednesday two trucks carrying rice, onion and potatoes to Longmai, Noney and Tamenglong districts were stopped by armed miscreants on National Highway no 37 and were sent on fire.
It may be mentioned here that Manipur has been burning due to clashes between two ethnic communities -- the majority Meiteis and the minority Kukis since May last year. The violence has so far claimed a human toll of over 240 people and displaced over 65,000 belong belonging to both the communities.
