The Union home ministry has sent 20 additional companies of central armed police forces, or about 2,000 personnel, to Manipur amid a spike in violence in the Jiribam district, The Hindu reported.
Fifteen companies of the Central Reserve Police Force have been moved to Manipur from Assam and five Border Security Force companies have been transferred from Tripura, according to a directive by the Union home ministry.
“The state govt of Manipur is instructed to formulate the detailed deployment plan, in consultation with the respective CAPFS,” the ministry said, according to The Times of India.
With the additional deployment, Manipur now has a total of 218 companies of central armed police forces, comprising over 29,000 personnel, the newspaper reported.
This comprises 115 companies from the Central Reserve Police Force, eight from the Rapid Action Force, 84 from the Border Security Force, five from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and six from the Sashastra Seema Bal.
At least 237 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur in May 2023. There has been an uptick in violence in the past week, with 14 persons having been killed since November 7.
On Monday, ten suspected Kuki militants were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jiribam district, the state police said. Ten Meiteis were believed to have gone missing after the gunfight. The bodies of two elderly men were later found on Tuesday, while two others were found alive.
Three women and three children, including an infant, are still missing from Jiribam.
Kuki organisations have claimed that the individuals killed in the gunfight on Monday were village volunteers. The term “village volunteers” has been used for armed civilians guarding villages since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities in May 2023.
On Wednesday, a truck was set on fire on National Highway 37 in the Naga-dominated Tamenglong district, according to The Hindu. The truck was travelling to Noney, another Naga-majority district. The Rongmei Naga Students’ Organisation blamed “Kuki extremists” for the attack and declared a “total boycott” of all supplies to the Kuki people in both districts.
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