Assam Rifles Helped Militants to Escape, Manipur Police Files Suo Moto FIR

A day after the paramilitary force was removed from a crucial checkpoint in the valley district, the Manipur Police filed a suo motu FIR accusing the 9th Assam Rifles of obstructing a search for tribal militants in Bishnupur on August 5 and allowing them to escape the dragnet.

The Manipur unit of BJP in memorandum PM Modi asking that the Assam Rifles be “completely and permanently replaced by any other paramilitary force.” It said that the military had failed to “maintain neutrality”.

The 9th Assam Rifles’ Casspir mine-protected vehicle was parked in the middle of Kwakta-Pholjang Road close to Kutub Wali Masjid at 6.30 am on August 5, according to Sub-inspector N. Devdas Singh’s FIR at the Phougakchao Ikhai police station.

The FIR claims that this lending to impeding police in the course of their duties as they searched the Kwakta neighborhood for terrorists believed to be hiding there after unidentified shooters killed three persons inside their homes—a father-and-son team and their neighbor.

An alleged video of an altercation between Assam Rifles and police personnel that morning had leaked on Monday, fueling the demonstrations by female activists that resulted in the paramilitary force called back from the checkpoint at Moirang Lamkhai in Bishnupur.

In his FIR, SI Devdas Singh charges members of the 9th Assam Rifles with “giving the accused Kuki militants a chance to escape to somewhere that is a free zone for them” and calls the alleged hindrance by the Assam Rifles “an arrogant act.”

Following the three murders in Kwakta early on August 5, retaliation resulted in three more deaths and 16 injuries later that day. Eight checkpoints are present in valley districts to stop the movements of armed groups. The Kakching-Sugnu, Imphal-Leimakhong, and Imphal-Sekmai routes all have three sites where the state administration had requested the deployment of either the Army or Assam Rifles along with police.

Since the violence last weekend, members of Kwakta’s Meitei Pangal (Muslim) community have left their houses. In a meeting with the state’s security adviser, community representatives pleaded for an end to the ethnic war that has been going on for more than three months.

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