Over 70% Guns Still Missing, Weapon Recovery in Violence-Hit Manipur Reaching Dead End

Recoveries of weapons in violence-hit Manipur have not seen a significant spike in the past week, prompting suspicions by central agencies that the ammunition – to cough up – may have been distributed among different groups, making it nearly impossible to trace.

The forces deployed in Manipur are having difficulty maintaining law and order in the state as they are unable to operate optimally in the tense areas. Senior sources claimed that while the situation is not deteriorating, the forces are trapped while conducting operations. Also, more than 70 percent of the weapons are still missing, and the chances of recovering them are getting smaller by the day.

There are only two ways to recover lost or looted weapons – the first is either for the public to return them or for troops to recover them through operations. Every day we recover weapons, but the number is in single digits. Nearly 1,100 weapons have been recovered as of last week. It climaxed when he appealed to Home Minister Amit Shah for the return of the weapons.

On the other hand, the security forces, when conducting operations, face clashes-like situations as the local population resists arrests and recovery operations.

When News18 spoke to various forces, including the Army, Assam Rifles, and CRPF, all claimed that the recoveries and detentions were difficult as they had to contend with crowds of 500-2,000 people and sometimes more.

In a recent operation by the Indian Army in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, 12 KYKL cadres were captured with weapons and ammunition.

“Based on specific intelligence, the operation was launched in the village of Etham (06km east of Andrew) in Imphal East by the security forces. A specific search was carried out after the cordon was put in order to avoid hardships faced by other locals in the area. The military said in the operation. That followed, 12 KYKL cadres were captured along with weapons, ammunition and war-like stores.

She added, “A gang of approximately 1,200-1,500 led by women and the local chief immediately surrounded the target area and prevented the security forces from moving forward with the operation. Repeated appeals to the aggressive masses to allow the security forces to continue their work in accordance with the law have not yielded any positive result. Taking into account the sensitivity of using kinetic force against a large angry mob led by women and the possible casualties caused by such action, a decision was taken to hand over all 12 cadres to the local commandant. The special columns lifted the cordon and left the area with war-like weapons and stores recovered from the rebels.

Almost 10 days ago, a mob attacked security forces in the middle of the night in Imphal. Two civilians were injured during the incident when crowds of about 1,200 people were trying to target the homes of political leaders.

“The biggest problem while dealing with a mob is that we must avoid using any force and act maturely so that there are no civilian casualties that could lead to an accident. Also, when we have to face a crowd of 1,500 to 2,500 people, the chances of it happening cannot be ruled out.” Injuries A senior army official told News18, “The situation is that we cannot function properly and we are arresting people belonging to different groups.”