New Delhi: The Centre has directed the deployment of two fresh CRPF battalions comprising about 2,000 personnel for security duties in ethnic strife-torn Manipur, official sources said Tuesday.
Battalion number 58 is being moved from Warangal in Telangana while the one numbered 112 is being sent from Latehar in Jharkhand. The first unit will have its headquarters in Kangvai (Churachandpur) in Manipur while the second will be stationed around Imphal, the sources told PTI.
They said the move has been ordered following the withdrawal of two Assam Rifles battalions from Manipur for operational duties in Jammu and Kashmir and some other parts of the Northeast.
“The CRPF will have a lead role in Manipur. Fresh units of the force were rushed to the state since the violence broke out between Meitei and Kuki people last year in May and the force is now being strengthened so that decision-making is better,” a top security officer told PTI.
Over 40 students injured
Meanwhile, over 40 students were injured following clashes with security forces when they attempted to march towards the Raj Bhavan in Imphal to press for their demands to remove the DGP and security advisor to the state government, police said.
The agitators shouted slogans and pelted security personnel with stones and glass marble balls, forcing the men in uniform to fire tear gas shells to disperse them, a police officer said.
Manipur University students also staged a protest rally and burnt the effigy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. They later headed for the state secretariat, but were stopped at Kakwa in Imphal West district, he said.
The students have been demanding the removal of the DGP and security advisor to the state government for their alleged inability to deal with the law and order situation in Manipur.
Following ther protest, prohibitory orders were imposed in three districts of Manipur. An indefinite curfew, preventing people from coming outside their houses, was clamped in Imphal East and West districts, while prohibitory orders under Section 163 (2) of BNSS were imposed in Thoubal.
More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic strife between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kukis since May last year. At least eight persons have died and over 12 injured in a fresh wave of violence, which included drone and missile attacks.
