7 Manipur Police trainees injured in clash at Assam Police Academy

At least seven Manipur Police trainees, undergoing training at Lachit Borphukan Police Academy in Assam's Golaghat district, were injured when a clash broke out between cadets of two ethnic groups, police said on Sunday, 4 February.

Police said that of the seven injured, three were admitted to Jorhat medical college and the remaining four were discharged after treatment.

The seven Manipur Police trainees, belonging to different ethnic groups, engaged in verbal abuse over some petty matter during dinner time on Saturday night and this snowballed in a physical scuffle. Trainees of other northeastern states intervened and dispersed the two warring groups, a police official said.

Three senior police officials of Assam and Manipur have visited the academy on Sunday and warned the trainees.

Assam Director General of Police G.P. Singh stated on X: "Reference scuffle at Police Academy at Dergaon Assam amongst young trainees from Manipur - They’ve been briefed in no uncertain terms to follow instructions and protocols of training institute from drill to discipline to decorum. No scope would be presented to anyone to deviate from the principles that guide training in our Academy. Any aberrant Behaviour would be corrected through tough training measures".

"...... there was a scuffle between the trainees from Manipur at Lachit Barphukan Police Academy over distribution of dinner. The matter is now resolved. The Range IGP and DIG Training are with the boys," he added.

Manipur Police sources said that senior IPS officer M. Pradip Singh also arrived in the academy to take stock of the situation.

"Matter is being monitored by Manipur Police on a real time basis and the situation is under control," the source said.

Manipur Police trainees are provided training in Assam police training academies. Last month, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh met his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati and discussed the training of new recruits of the state police.

Sarma had said: "As there is no environment for training of police battalions in Manipur, a battalion of Manipur will be trained in Dergaon. The Chief Minister of Manipur has requested me for the training of the battalion. It was purely an official discussion and not political."

There are four training institutions in Assam, all located at Dergaon, in Golaghat to train the Assam Police personnel.

A senior officer in Manipur said that the state was not able to provide training following the ethnic strife which broke out in the state on May 3 last year. There was new recruitment in state police but they were not given training facilities as the state was battling ethnic conflict.