Charge it with ‘obstructing search operations’
New Delhi, August 8
In a rare instance, the Manipur Police have registered an FIR against the Assam Rifles accusing the force of blocking their vehicle after an altercation between the two groups last week.
Sources in the security establishment, however, termed the FIR a “travesty of justice” and said the Assam Rifles was undertaking a task given by the command headquarters of ensuring sanctity of the buffer zones between Kuki and Meitiei areas. The FIR, a copy of which is with The Tribune, was filed on August 5 when the state police alleged that the Assam Rifles blocked police vehicles on the Kwakta Gothol road in Bishnupur district.
In the FIR, the police claimed that the Assam Rifles stopped its personnel from proceeding when “they were moving on Pholjang Road along Kwakta to conduct search operations in an Arms Act case in search of Kuki militants.”
The police also claimed that its personnel were stopped by 9 Assam Rifles, which parked their ‘Casper’ vehicle blocking the road. Sources in the defence establishment said: “Assam Rifles was undertaking a task given by the command headquarters of ensuring sanctity of the buffer zones between Kuki and Meitiei areas.”
Sources in the Imphal secretariat are reported to have said the Army was taking up the issue with the state government strongly at a high level.
Meanwhile, Assam Rifles personnel, posted at Moirang Lamkhai checkpoint in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, where fresh violence erupted last week, have been withdrawn and substituted with the CRPF and police forces, the state government said in a notification.
The withdrawal of Assam Rifles comes at a time when several groups of women in valley districts launched a demonstration on Monday, demanding the removal of the paramilitary force from the strife-torn northeastern state.