People give up over 1,000 illegal arms during surrender period: Manipur Police

People handed over to the security forces more than 1,000 arms along with ammunition during the two-week provided to them for voluntarily surrendering looted and illegally held weapons in ethnic strife-torn Manipur, a police officer said on Friday, a day after the deadline ended.

This figure, however, is provisional and the actual number of given-up arms is likely to go up after details from all districts reach the authorities in Imphal, the capital of the northeastern state which is under the President’s Rule.

The officers are yet to segregate the looted arms and illegally purchased weapons, which include handguns, machine guns, grenades, mortars, and INSAS and AK-56 rifles.

People handed over to the security forces a total of 196 arms along with ammunition and other miscellaneous items on the last day for voluntarily surrendering looted and illegally held weapons in strife-torn Manipur, police said on Friday.

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The security forces also destroyed 15 bunkers in Kangpokpi district.
   
 The arms were surrendered in eight districts till 4 pm of Thursday, which was the deadline for doing so after it was extended by Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the governor of the northeastern state which is under President’s Rule.
    
The districts are Bishnupur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Kakching, Jiribam Churachandpur and Pherzawl districts, police said.
    
After the deadline for voluntarily surrendering arms expired, joint security forces conducted combing and search operations in various parts of the state and recovered 36 arms, 129 ammunition, seven explosives, 21 miscellaneous items and destroyed 15 illegal bunkers, police said in a statement.