Amit Shah chairs high-level meeting on Manipur violence

Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Manipur.

This is the first such high-level meeting by the central government after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected to power earlier this month.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Deka, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, Army Chief (Designate) Lt General Upendra Dwivedi, GoC Three Core HS Sahi, Security Advisor to Manipur Kuldiep Singh, Manipur Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi, Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh and Assam Rifles DG Pradeep Chandran Nair joined the meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs in North Block, Delhi.

The meeting comes a day after Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uike called on the Home Minister at his office and learned to be briefed about the situations in the north-eastern state.

The meeting was held at the Ministry of Home Affairs as fresh violence was reported in the northern state.

Since May 3 last year, Manipur has witnessed clashes between the two communities Kukis and Meiteis, which has claimed at least 225 lives to date and uprooted around 50,000 people, many of whom are still residing in relief centres.

The northeastern state has seen fresh violence in the last couple of weeks with a school building near Moreh being set ablaze and a missing person’s beheaded body found was found.

Last week, armed militants ambushed the convoy of Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh’s advanced security team in Kangpokpi district, leaving a civilian driver and a security officer injured.

On June 10, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat said that Manipur has been waiting for peace since a year and this issue must be prioritised.

Bhagwat stressed the need to get over with election rhetoric and focus on problems facing the nation.