Violence posed peculiar challenges in Manipur: Lt General Rana Pratap Kalita

He said that the presence of weapons in both communities is still a problem

Manipur had posed peculiar challenges during the violence which escalated from May 3, Eastern Army Commander Lt General Rana Pratap Kalita said during a media interaction at Fort William in Kolkata.

He said that after the unrest on May 3, 4, and 5, personnel of the Indian Army and Assam Rifles, continue to work with state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and managed to control the unrest and give shelter to over 35,000 displaced people.

“Manipur posed some unusual difficulties during this violence, which began on May 3. However, since our induction, Indian Army, the CRPF, state police, and Assam Rifles have been working together to control the violence. We have given shelter to close to 35,000 people who were displaced from both the communities. After being moved to safer locations, some of them were placed in camps for displaced people, while others returned to their villages or the makeshift temporary structures that had been built for them,” said Kalita.

Speaking about how the weapons problem can be resolved, the Eastern Army Commander said that it can be resolved only by recovering them.

He said that the presence of weapons in both communities, regardless of whether they were taken from a police customary or imported from Myanmar, that is still a problem because when people have access to weapons, violence can flare up at any time. For this reason, we have launched a number of coordinated operations, and in the last 5, 6 months, a number of arms and ammunitions have been recovered. In addition, the state and central governments have been working hard to engage the affected communities and get them to decide to have a dialogue in order to bring about peace in the state.

‘Our duty as the armed forces being employed in such areas is to ensure that there are no violent activities and the violence parameters are brought down to the minimum level,” he added.

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