IMPHAL: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said nearly 40 armed militants involved in torching houses and firing at civilians have been killed by security forces since they began an operation to bring peace to the north eastern state beset by ethnic rioting.
Separately, police officials said on Sunday said at least two persons were killed and 12 injured in different instances of firing upon civilians and clashes between militants and security forces since the early hours of the day .
At Phayeng in Imphal West district, one person died and another sustained bullet injuries after being fired at by suspected Kuki militants, police officials said.
The latest clashes began after the army and para-military forces commenced combing operations to de-arm communities in order to bring peace, officials said.
The Chief Minister who was interacting with the media persons at the state secretariat, claimed the latest round of “conflict is not between communities but between militants and security forces”.
Singh also said that there had been cases of armed militants firing at civilians with AK-47s, M-16 and sniper rifles. These militants were targeted by security forces in counter-attacks.
The CM appealed to the public not to hinder the movement of security personnel and urged them to have “faith in the government and support the security forces.”
“We have experienced hardship for so long and we will never allow the state to disintegrate,” Singh said.
He said many militants involved in killing civilians and destroying property and torching houses have been captured by the Jat regiment.
The Chief Minister said the government is also “deeply saddened by the casualties on both sides” and assured “all possible steps in bringing back normalcy”.
He said the spurt in violent attacks on civilian houses in the peripheral areas of the Imphal valley seemed well-planned. Singh termed it as “strongly condemnable … especially when Minister of State Nityanand Rai is in Manipur and group peace missions are being formed to bring back peace”.
Singh said 38 vulnerable areas have been identified and that the state police has been conducting operations there.
