Over 70% Missing Guns Plague Violence-Hit Manipur As Weapon Recovery Hits Dead End

In the last week, there hasn’t been a big increase in the number of weapons found in Manipur, which has had a lot of violence. This makes central agencies think that the millions of rounds of ammo may have been split up among many different groups, making it almost impossible to find.

The forces in Manipur are having a hard time keeping order in the state because they can’t work as well as they should in places that are tense. Top sources said that the situation isn’t getting worse, but that troops are getting stuck when they try to do operations. Also, more than 70% of the guns have still not been found, and the chances of finding them are getting lower every day.

“There are only two ways to get back stolen or lost weapons: either the people brings them back or the military does operations to get them back. We find guns every day, but there aren’t that many of them. Up until last week, close to 1,100 guns were found. “It reached its highest point when Home Minister Amit Shah asked for the weapons to be returned.”

On the other hand, when security forces carry out operations, locals fight back against arrests and returns, which can lead to fights.

The Army, Assam Rifles, and CRPF, they all said that recovering and holding people was hard because they had to deal with crowds of 500 to 2,000 people, and sometimes even more.

In a recent raid in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, the Indian Army caught 12 KYKL cadres with weapons and ammunition.

“Based on specific information, Security Forces began an operation in the village of Itham, which is 6 km east of Andro in Imphal East. To avoid making life hard for other people in the area, a specific check was done after putting up the cordon. “In the operation that followed, 12 KYKL members were caught, along with weapons, ammunition, and other things that could be used in a war,” the Army said.

It said, “Right away, about 1,200 to 1,500 people, led by women and the local leader, surrounded the target area and stopped security forces from doing their job.” No good came from asking the angry crowd over and over again to let the security forces do their jobs according to the law. Taking into account how dangerous it would be to use physical force against a big, angry crowd led by women and how many people would likely die as a result, it was decided to give all 12 cadres to the local leader. Own columns lifted the cordon and left the area with guns and other war supplies taken from insurgents.”

Around 10 days ago, at midnight in Imphal, a crowd attacked security troops. During the event, two civilians were hurt while about 1,200 people tried to break into the homes of political leaders.

“The hardest part about dealing with the crowd is that we can’t use force and have to act like adults so that no civilians get hurt and start a fight. Also, we can’t be sure that none of us will die if we have to face a crowd of 1,500–2,500 people. “The situation is such that we can’t work well and catch people from different groups.”