Arms, war-like stores seized in Manipur

In two successful joint operations conducted on Saturday, the Army, in coordination with the Manipur Police, made significant recoveries of illegal arms and other war-like stores from Churachandpur district and the fringe area of Thoubal and Imphal East districts in the strife-torn state, official sources said.

In the first operation, a combined team of the Army and the Churachandpur police carried out a search in the heavily forested upper reaches of Thangjing Ridge in Churachandpur district.

The operation led to the recovery of two 9 mm pistols along with two magazines, a single-barrel rifle, two locally fabricated rockets measuring 5.5 ft and 3 ft, a modified long-range mortar, two modified medium-range mortars, four mortar bombs, nine rounds of 9 mm ammunition, 6.2 kg of grade two explosives and war-like stores.

In another operation, acting on a tip-off, a team of the Army and the police carried out a search at Changbi village in the fringe area of Thoubal and Imphal East districts.

The operation resulted in the recovery of two carbine machine guns, two pistols, a single-barrel gun, nine hand grenades, 11 rounds of small arms and ammunition and other war-like stores.

All recovered arms and war-like stores have been handed over to the police for further investigation and legal proceedings.

The recovery comes just a week after the Army recovered a similar cache of arms and war-like stores in Churachandpur.

Violence had escalated again in Manipur on September 1 following, what the police said, was a weaponised drone attack in Imphal West’s Koutruk.