Addressing the Manipur assembly during the commencement of the budget session, she said that 198 companies of central armed police forces and 140 army columns have been deployed along with state forces to maintain law and order.
More than 1,000 arms, including handguns, machine guns, grenades, mortars, and INSAS and AK-56 rifles, were surrendered by people in Manipur during a two-week amnesty period for voluntarily giving up looted and illegally held weapons. The surrender of arms comes as Manipur grapples with ethnic violence that has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
Over seven months of violence severely hit businesses, schools, colleges and other institutions, besides disrupting transportation and communication networks. It also affected the agrarian sector, considered the mainstay of the state economy.
Opposition parties in India have criticized the imposition of President's rule in strife-torn Manipur, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing to address the ethnic violence and using the measure to cover up internal conflicts within the party. They demanded a clear roadmap for restoring peace and questioned the government's lack of transparency and inaction on the issue. The violence, which erupted in May 2023, has left over 250 people dead.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has cancelled his election rallies in Maharashtra and is returning to Delhi due to the volatile situation in Manipur. The home minister is likely to hold a meeting to review the situation in the northeastern state, where irate mobs have set fire to the residences of several BJP and Congress legislators. The incidents follow a series of killings and abductions by militants in the state.
Prohibitory orders were imposed in parts of Manipur's Tamenglong district after a clash between two Naga villages over a land dispute left at least 25 people, including 12 security personnel, injured, officials said on Thursday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday said the government was talking to both the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur to ensure lasting peace and has begun fencing the country's border with Myanmar to check infiltration.
In a bid to restrain the circulation of videos and images depicting violence and damage to properties in the state, the Manipur government in an order said such dissemination will be dealt with severely and booked as per law.
Following the violence, the authorities clamped curfew for 24 hours in the area and reduced the curfew relaxation hours in several other districts.
Members from various opposition parties, including the Congress, sought to raise the Manipur issue immediately after the House convened and some of them shouted slogans.
The PIL said the independent expert committee should be asked to submit its report within four weeks and direction be issued for action against state agencies for dereliction of duty.
Asking Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, to file an updated status report, the bench said, "It should have details like rehabilitation camps, law and order and recovery of arms."
Pakistan's army chief, General Asim Munir, has warned that the country will respond with "full force" to preserve its "national prestige" and the wellbeing of its people if its sovereignty and territorial integrity are violated. He made the comments during a workshop on Balochistan, emphasizing that Pakistan seeks peace but will not tolerate threats to its security. General Munir also highlighted foreign-sponsored terrorism as a major threat to Balochistan's security and development, vowing to counter it with unwavering national unity.
Meira Paibis, a collective of Meitei women, on Friday staged sit-in demonstrations across five districts of Imphal Valley in protest against the alleged gang rape of a 37-year-old woman in Churachandpur on May 3, when the ongoing ethnic violence started.
Six people -- three women and three children -- belonging to the Meitei community had gone missing from a relief camp in Jiribam after a gunfight between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants that resulted in the deaths of 10 insurgents on November 11.
A mob led by Kuki-Zo women clashed with security forces in Manipur's Kangpokpi district on Tuesday, triggering fresh tensions in the ethnic strife-hit state.
The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has condemned the imposition of President's rule in Manipur, calling it "undemocratic" and "most unfortunate." The Meitei body alleges the President's rule is a ploy to push the state into further turmoil and that the central government is using it as a means to shift the blame onto the BJP's alleged incompetency rather than addressing the real issues at hand. COCOMI also criticized the BJP legislators for failing to choose a new leader and demanded an immediate and time-bound process to elect a new leader and restore a government at the earliest.
The autopsy report of the 31-year-old tribal woman, who was killed in Manipur's violence-hit Jiribam district on November 7, revealed that she was subjected to third-degree torture and suffered 99 per cent burns.
In a statement, the ITLF said in view of a request of the home minister, the group will finalise an alternative location, in consultation with the people, for burial of bodies of ethnic violence victims belonging to the Kuki-Zo community which are lying in Imphal.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has called for dialogue to resolve all misunderstandings in the state and stressed the importance of all recognised tribes living together. He made the appeal at the 53rd Statehood Day celebrations, urging everyone to focus on building a prosperous Manipur. Singh also highlighted the state government's efforts in combating drug abuse, noting that over Rs 70,000 to 80,000 crore worth of illegal drugs have been destroyed in the past few years.
Security agencies in Manipur are investigating an arms smuggling racket originating from Myanmar, with potential nationwide implications. The probe follows the arrest of a senior leader from a Valley-based Insurgent Group (VBIG).
Just a day after an agreement was signed between Hmar and Meitei representatives to restore peace in ethnic violence-hit Jiribam district of Manipur, the apex body of the Hmar community said that the pact stood 'null and void'.
A gunfight broke out between two groups of people in Manipur's Bishnupur district on Thursday, officials said.
The incident took place as several dozens of armed men opened indiscriminate fire on Koutruk village in the periphery of Imphal Valley from the adjoining hills in Kangpokpi district, a police officer said.
The lawlessness because of the fake picture spread like jungle fire and was one of the reasons for the state government to shut down the Internet on May 3, the officials said.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Tuesday apologised for the ethnic conflict in the state which claimed over 250 lives and rendered thousands homeless, and appealed to all communities to forget and forgive past mistakes and live together in a peaceful and prosperous state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah should tell from where do Kuki militants get rifles and ammunition, it said.
The CBI has so far registered eight cases which include two related to alleged sexual assault on women in Manipur.
During the meeting, it was decided to hold consultations on a wider scale so as to arrive at a common political agenda with other groups, it said.
Close to 2,000 passengers are stranded at the premises of the airport, the terminal building of which can handle only 750 passengers -- 250 for arrival and 500 for departure -- at a time.
A CCTV captured video of head constable Satish Prasad, allegedly abusing the woman donning his combat uniform and carrying an INSAS rifle, was also shared widely over social media.
The Indian Army has launched a massive search operation for a man who went missing from the fringe areas of the Imphal Valley two days ago. Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a works supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) in Leimakhong Military Station, disappeared after leaving home on Monday afternoon to report for work. The Army is using all its resources, including tracker dogs, drones, and aerial platforms, to locate Singh. The incident has led to tensions in the area, with hundreds of people from the Meitei community demanding information about Singh's whereabouts.
According to the latest data, the CBI has so far registered 27 cases handed over to it by the state police -- 19 cases of crime against women, three related to an armoury loot by a mob, two of murder and one each of rioting and murder, kidnapping and general criminal conspiracy, sources aware of the developments said.
The mother of Janata Dal-United MLA Kh Joykishan Singh in Manipur has lodged a complaint, alleging that Rs 18 lakh in cash and jewellery items worth Rs 1.5 crore were looted by a mob that vandalised the legislator's residence on November 16, police said on Thursday.
'These are just to deflect from the leaked audio tapes of the chief minister which prove his culpability in the ethnic violence against the Kukis that has gripped the state for more than 17 months.'
"I am sure that those who are in the chair and responsible for taking actions due to be taken are doing their best and we should avoid second guessing them".
At Thamnapokpi under Moirang constituency in Bishnupur district, armed men fired several rounds in the air near a polling booth prompting voters to flee, police said on Friday, adding additional security personnel were rushed to the spot to contain the situation.
The Haryana government on Friday rejected in the high court the suggestion that a demolition drive in violence-hit Nuh did not follow procedure and was an exercise in 'ethnic cleansing', as the bench hearing the case referred it to the chief justice's court.
Expressing anguish over the manner in which women were subjected to grave atrocities in Manipur, the Supreme Court has said that mobs use sexual violence to send a message of subordination to the other community and the state is bound to stop this.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she is saddened at the loss of lives in "sporadic" incidents of violence during the panchayat elections.