Mobs loot huge cache of arms, ammunition from Manipur Police posts, one cop killed

Mobs ransacked two security posts in Manipur’s Bishnupur district and looted a large cache of arms and ammunition on Thursday, police said.

A security personnel was killed at Koutruk in Bishnupur district when the armed attackers engaged in an encounter with the security forces.

A Manipur Police statement late on Thursday night said that a mob stormed Keirenphabi Police outpost and Thangalawai Police outpost of Manipur Armed Police's 2nd Battalion in Bishnupur and took away a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

The mob, comprising men and women, also attempted to snatch arms and ammunition from Heingang police station and Singjamei police station in the same district but security forces repelled them.

The statement said that exchange of fire between the armed attackers and security forces occurred at Koutruk, Haraothel, and Senjam Chirang areas in which two persons including a security personnel sustained bullet injuries.

Security forces retaliated to the firing and drove away the attackers.

As an unruly crowd of 500-600 persons assembled at Phougakchao Ikhai along the borders of Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts, security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob in which around 25 persons sustained minor injuries.

During the last 24 hours, the situation in the state is still volatile and tense with sporadic incidents of firing and gathering of unruly mobs in different places. Security forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the state and destroyed seven illegal bunkers of the attackers.