NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday cancelled his multiple planned rallies in the Vidarbha region of poll-bound Maharashtra and returned to the national capital to review the security situation in the wake of fresh violence that erupted in Manipur, sources said.
The sources said the Home Minister held a high-level review meeting with senior officials and took stock of the situation while directing them to take all possible measures to bring normalcy back in the state.
The Home Minister has again called a meeting of the senior officials on Monday, they said, adding “where a detailed discussion on the law and order situation in Manipur will take place”.
Meanwhile, Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Anish Dayal has been rushed to Imphal to assess the security situation in Manipur, which has been witnessing intermittent violent incidents since May 2023 following the ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities.
Tensions escalated in Manipur on Saturday following the recovery of the bodies of six individuals, who were reportedly abducted and killed by militants in Jiribam.
On Saturday, irate mobs attacked the residences of state ministers and MLAs, ransacking and setting some of them on fire. The protesters attempted to storm Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s house also, prompting security forces to respond with tear gas to disperse the crowds across Imphal..
The fresh incidents of violent protests took place on Saturday night even as an indefinite curfew was clamped after people, agitated by the killing of three women and three children by militants in Jiribam district, attacked the residences of three state ministers and six MLAs earlier on Saturday.
Enraged people torched the houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam's BJP MLA Y Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha's BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district and Khundrakpam's Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, the officials said.
The legislators and their family members were not at home when the mob stormed their residential compounds, vandalised properties and set the houses on fire, police said, adding the houses were partially burnt in the incidents.
On Sunday morning, there was a tense calm in all five districts of the Imphal Valley, where the curfew was imposed and internet services were suspended following violent protests.
The Manipur Police on November 11 claimed 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately at Borobekra Police Station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district.
Hours later, suspected militants allegedly abducted six civilians, including women and children, from the same district, police had claimed.
On Saturday, the Union home ministry said that all security forces deployed in Manipur have been directed to take necessary steps to restore order and peace in the state where the situation remained "fragile" in the past few days.
It said armed miscreants from both communities in conflict have been indulging in violence leading to unfortunate loss of lives and disruption in public order.
The home ministry said strict action would be initiated against anyone trying to indulge in violent and disruptive activities.
The Centre had on Thursday reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur's six police station areas, including the violence-hit Jiribam.
More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.
It started after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.
(With inputs from PTI)
