Violence controlled to great extent, no deaths since June 13: Manipur CM after meeting Amit Shah

Chief Minister of Manipur N Biren Singh Sunday called on Home Minister Amit Shah to brief the latter about the situation in the violence-hit state. This comes day after Shah had convened an all-party meeting on the issue.

New Delhi:Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital on Sunday to apprise him of the ground situation in the northeastern state hit by ethnic violence for nearly two months.

Singh in a longish tweet said that he called on Shah and briefed him about the "evolving situation" in Manipur. "Called on Union Home Minister, Amit Shah in New Delhi today and briefed about the evolving situation on the ground in Manipur. Under Amit Shah’s close supervision, the State and Central Govt have been able to control the violence to a great extent in the past week. It may be noted that there has been no report of casualties due to the violence since the 13th of June."

Union HM, Singh tweeted, has assured that the central government will take "all possible steps to maintain peace in Manipur". "Hon’ble Union HM has assured that the central government will take all possible steps to bring normalcy in Manipur. Further, Amit Shah Ji advised us to strengthen our work towards achieving everlasting peace and also sought the cooperation of every stakeholders in Manipur to ensure that peace prevails in the State. I was joined by BJP National Spokesperson Shri @sambitswaraj Ji, Hon’ble MP Rajya Sabha Shri @MaharajaManipur Ji and Hon’ble Speaker Shri Th Satyabrata Singh Ji," Singh said in his tweet.

Pertinently, on Saturday, Amit Shah convened an all-party meeting on the Manipur crisis in which he said that PM Narendra Modi was monitoring the Manipur situation since day one and "guiding us with full sensitivity" to find a solution to the problem. Shah told the meeting the situation in Manipur was "slowly returning to normal" and not a single person has died since June 13 in violence in the state.

The home minister solicited cooperation of all the political parties to help defuse the situation and restore peace and trust among various communities in Manipur at the earliest. So far, 1,800 looted weapons have been surrendered. Eighteen political parties including the BJP and four MPs from northeast and two chief ministers from the region attended the meeting.

The home minister said all political parties sensitively and apolitically gave their suggestions for restoration of peace in Manipur and the Central government will consider them with an open mind. The opposition parties have been critical of the Centre's handling of the Manipur situation and have questioned the prime minister's "silence" on the issue.