New Delhi/Imphal: In a high-level meeting here with top security and intelligence officials here, the Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday reviewed the volatile security situation in Manipur for the second consecutive day and directed them to focus on restoring peace and order as early as possible. He also reviewed the deployment of forces in the troubled state, the sources said.
The MHA has decided to rush an additional 50 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), comprising nearly 5,000 security personnel, in view of the challenging security and law and order situation in the northeastern state, the sources further said.
The additional deployment of CAPFs comes after the home ministry sent an 20 additional CAPF companies, 15 from the CRPF and five from BSF, to the state after an order issued on November 12 after violence broke out in Jiribam district and spread to other places.
The additional 50 companies will be sent to Manipur by this week. While 35 units will be drawn from the CRPF, the rest will be from the BSF, the sources said.
CRPF director-general A.D. Singh and senior officers from other paramilitary forces are also present in the state.
With last week's deployment, a total of 218 CAPF companies are now in the state, which has been reeling from ethnic strife since May last year.
The situation in Manipur has been volatile following protests and violence after the recovery of bodies of women and children on Saturday.
The home ministry said strict action would be taken against anyone trying to indulge in violent and disruptive activities. Seeing the fragile situation, the Centre on Thursday reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in six police station areas of Manipur, including the violence-hit Jiribam.
The Manipur government on Monday also extended the suspension of Internet services by two more days till Wednesday in seven districts of the northeastern state.
Defying curfew orders, a group of people led by members of Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an influential organisation of the Meitei community, on Monday locked the front doors of several government offices in Imphal West district to protest against the recent killing of three women and three children in Jiribam, officials in the state government said.
On Sunday night, a protester was killed in firing during a clash between security forces and a mob that was vandalising properties in Jiribam district, the police said in Imphal.
The offices of the Congress and BJP, and a house belonging to Jiribam's Independent MLA were ransacked by a group of agitators. They brought furniture, paper and other things out of the properties and made a bonfire out of them in front of the buildings, officials said.
An uneasy calm prevailed in the Imphal Valley, where curfew remained enforced and Internet services suspended after agitators vandalised and set ablaze properties belonging to several ministers and legislators.
The security forces have intensified patrolling in many parts of Imphal and increased deployment at many residences of legislators as well as all major roads leading to the state secretariat, the state BJP headquarters and Raj Bhavan.
Curfew has been imposed for an indefinite period in Imphal East and West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching districts of Imphal Valley “due to developing law and order situation", the officials said. The state administration has suspended Internet services in seven districts.
Meanwhile, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh has also convened a meeting with ministers and MLAs of the ruling NDA in Imphal on Monday evening to review the “developing law and order situation in the state”, officials said.
More than 200 people have been killed and thousands have been rendered homeless in ethnic violence between the Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kukis in Manipur since May last year.
