Imphal, May 28 (UNI): Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons, like M16, Ak 47, sniper, mortars and other equipment, were attacking civilians, burning houses and killing people.
“It is shocking that heavily armed militants are attacking civilians, women and children, it was added. All those who try to disturb the tranquility and peaceful co-existence among the communities are enemies of the people and the state,” he said.
The chief minister addressing the media here on Sunday expressed concern over repeated attacks on unarmed civilians using sophisticated weapons. Normalcy had returned but some terrorists don’t want peace, he said. The government has the responsibility to protect lives and property of common people and counter defensive measures were taken up by army, central forces and state force and many persons wearing combat dresses were apprehended. In retaliatory attacks on about 40 Kuki terrorists might have been neutralised, he said.
The conflict in Manipur has been wrongly portrayed as clashes between two ethnic groups out of the 35 ethnic groups, he said. The fight is between the enemy of the people and militants under suspension of operation (SOO) and security personnel, he said.
The Manipur Cabinet decided to condemn the terrorist attack on the common masses he said. He said the Manipur Police is well trained and will fight the terrorists.
The common people are not involved in the clashes and he appealed to the people to support the army and other forces. The clash in Manipur is between Kuki militants under Suspension of Operations (SOO) and the people of Manipur he added. It’s not the time to disturb the activities of the forces. He said the state had seen clashes between Kuki and Naga, Kuki and Paite, Kuki and Tamil , Meitei and Meitei Pangal earlier and it is time to support the government to end the conflict he said. The conflict this time is different as the agenda of those attacking people is to disturb the territorial integrity of Manipur, he said.
