A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced a judicial probe and a peace committee to look into the violent clashes in Manipur, curfew has been lifted in a few districts and relaxed in several other areas of the strife-torn state. The state police also said on Friday that a total of 140 weapons have been surrendered in the state since Shah's appeal.
The surrendered weapons included self-loading rifles, carbine, AK and INSAS rifles, light machine guns, pistols, M16 rifles, smoke gun/tear gas, sten gun and grenade launcher.
Shah, who ended a four-day visit to the state, addressed a press conference on Thursday and appealed to all sections for peace and requested them to surrender the weapons to the police. As many as 2,000 weapons were looted from the police armoury after ethnic violence erupted a month ago, NDTV reported.
Shah had also warned that strict action will be taken against those found in possession of weapons during police's search operations. A CBI probe to look into FIRs alleging criminal conspiracies behind the violence in Manipur was also announced.
While the judicial probe will be headed by a retired high court chief justice, the peace committee under the Governor of Manipur Anusuiya Uikey will comprise representatives of all political parties and the warring Kuki and Meitei communities. In another major development, senior IPS officer Rajiv Singh, belonging to the Tripura cadre, was formally appointed as the new director general of police of Manipur for a period of three years "as a special case in public interest".
Ethnic clashes broke out in the northeastern state on May 3 after a "Tribal Solidarity March" was organised in the state's hill districts to protest the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. More than 80 people have been killed in the violance.
Shah said that the leaders of both the warring Meitei and Kuki communities, as well as other civil society representatives who met him, assured that they would work to assuage hurt feelings.
-with agency inputs
