Imphal: Manipur DGP P Doungel appealed to the militant organizations to return the stolen arms at the earliest—it seems his appeal didn’t go in vain as police have recovered as many as 247 arms snatched by mobs from various police stations and state security force units on the first two days of recent violence incidents in Manipur.

Unruly mobs who stormed various police stations and state security units, both in hills and valley areas had taken away a large number of arms and ammunition on the first two days of violence incidents.

Taking the matter seriously, state police chief P Doungel, during a news conference on May 5, appealed to the public to return the weapons to avoid legal consequences. On the same day, the police commandos also recovered at least seven weapons snatched by the mobs at three different places in the outskirts of the capital city.

Addressing a press conference at the DIPR auditorium on Tuesday, state IPR minister Dr Sapam Ranjan Singh informed that a total of 247 arms and 4679 ammunitions were surrendered so far. The minister, reiterating the government’s appeal to surrender the snatched arms and ammunition, cautioned the public to surrender the snatched weapons at the earliest or else face legal action.

He further informed that the police have so far lodged as many as 216 FIR in connection with incidents of the violence that had marred the state. The IPR minister said that the situation in the state was relatively peaceful on Tuesday compared to past few days.

“No reports of violence and arson were reported apart from some sporadic incidents on the highways,” he said. Dr Ranjan further said that at present there were only about 4,000 displaced people taking shelter in different relief camps and regular health check-ups and psychological counselling were being given to them.

Relief materials were being provided to affected people, he said, adding that curfew relaxation period has also been increased up to four to five hours with the improvement of the situation. The number of relief camps was decreasing day by day as people were being transferred to their safe destinations, including homes, he added.

The state government has also started taking up confidence building measures even as interaction with important persons and CSO leaders were taking place regularly, he informed. He informed that a total of around 6000 people had been given safe passage from Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Imphal, Noney and Senapati districts today.

As of now, over 26,000 people had been evacuated so far. Out of this around 1930 people, mainly, students from other states, had returned to their homes safely. Attending the news conference, state education minister Th Basantakumar Singh informed that the Manipur government has preponed summer vacation for schools and colleges from May 4-30 and from May 15 to June 5 for the universities.

The minister said the decision to pre-pone the summer vacation was taken considering the occupation of the educational institutions by security personnel arriving in the state to contain the violence. Over 50 companies of paramilitary forces are stationed in Manipur in wake of the violence in the state, he informed.

In the meantime, an official report from Churachandpur district headquarters said that about 2500 rescued people sheltered at different relief camps in Imphal reached Churachandpur today. A similar number of people who were at different relief camps in the district were given safe passage towards Imphal, it added.

Efforts were also on to facilitate evacuation of people who were still at relief camps. Necessary steps were in place to ensure availability of essential items to the public in coordination with the state authority, the report added.

Currently, about 1700 people were secured at different relief centres in various parts of the district. The district administration has urged all concerned to maintain peace and refrain from spreading misinformation that can cause law and order issues in the district.