Imphal/New Delhi:
Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla said in a statement today that people of all communities should rob and surrender weapons and ammunition within seven days.
The Governor said that no punitive action will be taken against any person, which returns such weapons within the time limit; However, strict action will be taken to loot or keep illegal weapons after the seven -day deadline ends.
The state that shares an open border with Myanmar and where ethnic clashes between the Miti community and more than a dozen separate tribes are collectively known as cookie, which began about two years ago, the President Is under the rule of
Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and his council ministers resigned on 9 February, after which the Governor kept the assembly suspended animation, or MLAs active but without powers.
“The people of Manipur, both the valley and the hills, have faced more than the last 20 months due to a series of unfortunate events affecting peace and communal harmony. In more interest in restoring the general situation, people have faced more than 20 months. Governor Bhalla can return to his normal, “Day-to-day activities, all communities of the state ensure enmity and peace and maintenance of system in society One must come forward to do it.
To restore peace and general situation in the state, Mr. Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Governor of Manipur, has urged the people, especially the youth to surrender the weapons voluntarily looted and illegally organized. pic.twitter.com/z3yfhl7nvs
– Raj Bhavan Manipur (@rajbhavmanipur) February 20, 2025
“It is in this regard that I honestly request the people of all communities, especially the youth of the youth in the valley and hills, voluntarily robbed and looted and illegally organized weapons and illegally organized weapons And surrendered the blooming within the surprise within the nearest police station/outpost/security forces. “Your single task of returning these weapons may be a powerful gesture towards ensuring peace.”
“I want to assure you that if such weapons are returned within the stipulated time, no punitive action will be initiated. After this, strict action will be taken for the possession of such weapons. The government status and security The future of our youth is committed to ensure peaceful resolution.
Guns in Manipur
On May 3, 2023, an estimated 6,000 firearms were looted from police stations and forces in Manipur after the ethnic conflict. Some 4,000 firearms are still missing, sources have said. Some of the recovered firearms include American Origin M Series Assault Rifle. Police sources said about 30 percent of the looted weapons have been recovered so far.
An official of the Union Home Ministry requested an oblivion, saying, “The sophisticated weapons looted by the state have made their way into the Manipur ethnic conflict, creating fresh challenges for the security agencies.”
Several members of the Valley-Dominant Metei Milesia Arambai Teengol (AT) have been nominated in police arsenal robbery cases.
However, AT says that it is a cultural organization that has been forced to take up arms as village defense volunteers in the early days of ethnic violence, which has made weapons in the foothills coming under the attacks of cookie terrorists. The villages were led.
Cookie Civil Society groups have accused the attacks launched on their villages with inter-district borders after the first wave of clashes in May 2023, which forced the cookie tribes to take up arms and make the defense forces of the village, Those who were trained and armed by terrorists. A ceasefire was signed with the Center and the state.
While the two sides call their armed individuals “volunteers”, a similar feature is the weapons they use-A and M Series Assault Rifle, Rocket-Propeld Grenade, Crned and Military Grade Mortar, High-And Snipper Rifle, Monitoring Drone, etc.
Read “Looks like they cover long distances …”: Manipur Police that took place in Ziribam
Cookie-Jo tribes are about two dozen rebel groups under two umbrellas organizations, called the Cookie National Organization (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF). KNO and UPF have signed the controversial suspension of the Operations (SOO) agreement, whose terms include regular monitoring of the rebels and their weapons kept in the storage locked in the specified camps.
Miti terrorist groups like almost extinct PLA, CECL and KCP were banned in Manipur for the last 10 years, which had also returned from Myanmar after May 2023 and due to low grip of janta in areas where some remaining miteis Militants camped.
The United National Liberation Front (Pambi), or UNLF (P) is the only Meitei terrorist group that signed a ceasefire with the central and state government like a SOO.
Read 3 ‘Arambai Tenggol’ members arrested forcibly, guns seized: Manipur police
The Governor’s call is important for surrendering of arms looted by people of both warning communities since being under the rule of the state. Cookie and Metei Civil Society Organizations are asking the center to ensure simultaneous disarmament.
“What will be challenging, it is not that it cannot be done, for the joint security forces under the President’s rule, which guarantees protection from attacks by timid terrorists from both sides on Metei and Cookie Citizens and Volunteers. , Those who have deposited the firepower of loot, no matter the ceasefire, the request for the conflict.
Cookie tribes and Meiteis are fighting on many issues such as land rights and political representation. More than 250 have died and around 50,000 have been displaced internally.
,
