The combing operations being carried out by security forces in conflict-hit Manipur in search of the weapons snatched during the Meitei-Kuki clashes have not achieved much success yet.
Although police in Manipur say they have recovered nearly 100 such weapons during the searches conducted over the last 10 days, sources in at least two central security agencies told DH that recovery of weapons has not gone as per their expectation and the "plan of action", which was chalked out after the weapons were snatched in May and June.
Sources said although the report suggested that nearly 6,000 weapons were either snatched or stolen from armouries of police or Indian Reserve Police battalion store rooms, only about 1,800 of them have been recovered so far. They said that the "intervention" by women Meitei organisations also affected their drive in the valley districts to recover the weapons.
"According to reports, most of the weapons were snatched by the valley-based miscreants or insurgents but the drive to recover the weapons could not be carried out as per the action plan mainly due to the interference by women organisations," sources said.
Security forces, including the Army, had launched a "massive combing operation" after 4,000 weapons and ammunition were snatched from police armouries on May 4 and 5 and later on May 28.
On August 4, nearly 500 armed men entered an arms store of an Indian Reserve Battalion in Meitei-dominated Bishnupur district and looted nearly 300 sophisticated weapons. The looted weapons included AK series rifles, INSAS rifles, mortars, 9mm pistols, grenades and ammunition.
But inability of security forces to recover the looted weapons have kept the Kukis under constant fear of more attacks on them. Kuki organisations even alleged that Manipur police handed over the weapons to armed Meitei groups such as Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun as the government is part of the plot for the "ethnic cleansing" of the Kukis. CM N Biren Singh, however, has rejected such allegations.
On August 16, Congress MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi told reporters in Guwahati that nearly 6,000 weapons and over six lakh rounds of ammunition, which were looted during the violence has still remained missing. "These weapons will be trained on ordinary citizens and jawans. There can not be peace and normalcy till recovery of these weapons and when there is no talks and reconciliation," Gogoi said.
More than 160 people have been killed and 60,000 others have been displaced due to the violence between sections of the Meitei and Kukis in Manipur since May 3.