Manipur: Huge Cache Of Arms, Explosives Seized As Security Forces Continue To Recover Looted Weapons

A huge cache of arms and ammunition including sophisticated weapons were recovered by the security forces in Manipur in the last 24 hours.

Guwahati: A huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were seized in the last 24 hours in Manipur as security forces continue to recover weapons looted by miscreants from police armouries. The recoveries resulted from extensive search operations conducted by the security forces in the fringe and vulnerable areas of the violence-hit state’s Kangpokpi, Bishnupur, Kakching, Thoubal and Churachandpur districts.

In a search operation conducted at Champai village under the jurisdiction of the Leimakhong police station in Kangpokpi district, the security forces recovered a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR) with magazine, two 12-bore country-made Single Barrel Breech Loader (SBBL) guns, one 40mm lathode gun and five improvised mortars, locally known as pompi. The security forces also recovered 20 live rounds of 12-bore SBBL gun bullets and 15 tear gas shells, the Manipur police said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In another search operation conducted at Gelbung village under the jurisdiction of the Kumbi police station in Bishnupur district, the security forces recovered one Alteration 1 (A1) rifle, one Heckler & Koch (HK) G3 rifle, 32 High Explosive (HE) hand grenades, four 2 inch twin mortar shells, 11 handmade mines, four White Phosphorus (WP) smoke bombs, 20 tube launchers and arming rings each, two detonators with fuse and one Bullet Proof (BP) jacket.

The security forces while conducting another operation at Wangoo Laiphum village under the jurisdiction of the Wangoo police station in Kakching district, recovered one AK-47 assault rifle, five SLRs, one .303 modified rifle, one INSAS rifle, three .303 rifles, two SBBL guns, six live rounds of ballistic bullets, 11 HE hand grenades, one Chinese hand grenade, three WP MK-I hand grenades, one local made pipe bomb, some Plastic Explosive Kirkes (PEK) along with fuse, 15 grenade launching tubes, six detonators, two detonator boxes, six ballistic bullets, three empty cases of 12 bore gun, one empty AK-47 magazine, one empty INSAS rifle magazine, four empty .303 rifle magazines, five empty SLR rifle magazines, one BP vest and two walkie-talkies (Baofeng).

In yet another search operation conducted at Lamjang village under the jurisdiction of the Singhat police station in Churachandpur district, the security forces recovered one 12-bore single-barrel rifle, four explosives, one 40mm locally made grenade launcher and one 40mm grenade launcher (tear gas gun).  

On September 22 this year, the Manipur government while setting a 15-day deadline to return all the weapons looted from the police armouries, had warned of launching extensive search operations across the state to recover them.

According to police, a total of 5,669 different types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of rounds of different kinds of ammunition were looted by different organisations, mobs and individuals after ethnic riots broke out in Manipur on May 3. The miscreants allegedly used these weapons to carry out “terror attacks” across the state.

More than 180 people have lost their lives and over a thousand have been left injured in the six-month-long ethnic clashes in the state.

On September 22, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, while informing that all illegal weapons held by any persons or groups across Manipur should be surrendered within 15 days, warned of taking legal action and launching search operations to recover them.