Imphal : A total of 3 sophisticated weapons and ammunition allotted to the security guards of the former director of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal was snatched at gunpoint by some unknown miscreants in the wee hours on Sunday, the police said.

A group of unidentified miscreants armed with sophisticated weapons came to the residence of the former director of the RIMS Dr Rajo at around 2 a.m. on Sunday and took away their service weapons after being overpowered at around 2 a.m. on Sunday. The service weapons included two AK 47 rifles and one carbine and ammunition.

According to a complaint lodged by the former director of the Imphal West district police station, the guards were deployed at his residence located at Bijoy Govinda, Sagolband, Imphal West district. Police registered a case and stated that attempts are on to arrest and recover the miscreants and looted weapons.

The weapon snatching incident happened at a time when Manipur Chief Minister N Biren announced of recovery of 1200 weapons in various operations conducted by the joint security forces and Manipur police at various hideouts in the state during the past few weeks. The CM told the national media that said that more than 1000 weapons were stolen from hill areas and around 2000-3000 from valley areas during the past 3-4 months. It is worrying that civilians stole the arms, but security forces are recovering them every day.

Meanwhile state government claimed that the central security forces and Manipur police in joint operations recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from various vulnerable places including near the Dolaithabi dam area during the past 24 hours.