Manipur: Stand-off in Imphal’s Itham ends as Army leaves with seized weapons

After a stand-off between a mob led by girls and safety forces that had cordoned off Itham village in Imphal East, the place a dozen members of militant group KYKL had been hiding, the Military took “a mature choice” to not danger civilian lives and left with seized weapons and ammunition, officers mentioned on Sunday. The Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), a Meitei militant group, was concerned in a lot of assaults, together with the ambush of a 6 Dogra unit in 2015, they mentioned.

The stand-off in Itham went on all through Saturday, and ended after a “mature choice by the operational commander retaining in view the sensitivity of use of kinetic pressure in opposition to massive irate mob led by girls and certain casualties on account of such motion”, they added. Amongst these holed up within the village was self-styled Lt Col Moirangthem Tamba alias Uttam, a wished terrorist who could have been the mastermind of the Dogra ambush tragedy, the officers mentioned. The village is located 6 km east of Andro and in a densely wooded space. A 1,500-strong mob led by girls surrounded the Military coloumn, and prevented the forces from carrying away the militants, who had been apprehended, they mentioned.

“Repeated appeals to the aggressive mob to let the safety forces keep it up with operation as per regulation didn’t yield any optimistic outcome,” the officers mentioned. The Military’s choice to go away was taken, retaining in thoughts the necessity to “keep away from any collateral harm throughout the ongoing unrest in Manipur”. Greater than 100 folks have misplaced their lives within the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities within the northeastern state to date. Clashes first broke out on Could 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised within the hill districts to protest in opposition to the Meitei group’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) standing.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s inhabitants and stay principally within the Imphal Valley. Tribals — Nagas and Kukis — represent one other 40 per cent of the inhabitants and reside within the hill districts.