Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after a video from May 4 surfaced on Wednesday showing two women from one of the warring communities being paraded naked by a few men from the other side, officials said in Imphal on Wednesday.
State security advisor Kuldiep Singh said that lawful action will be taken against those displaying firearms at the parade.
A large number of arms and ammunition of the police have allegedly been looted by the rioters during the violence.
In a separate incident, a tribal woman had lodged a complaint at Saikul police station, stating that her 21-year-old daughter and her 24-year-old friend were allegedly raped by a mob at their rented house near Konung Mamang before brutally murdering them on May 4.
The spark for the raging violence was lit by demonstrations by tribal groups against a move to grant the majority Meiteis the Scheduled Tribe status, which the residents of the hills had been enjoying for decades since Independence.
Days after cash and ornaments valued at over Rs 2.25 crore were found missing from an Axis Bank branch in Manipur's Churachandpur, criminals targeted another bank in Kangpokpi district and looted computers and other electronic items worth nearly Rs 1 crore, officials said on Friday.
The withdrawal of Assam Rifles comes at a time when several groups of women in valley districts launched a demonstration on Monday, demanding the removal of the paramilitary force from the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state.
A mob tried to attack Chief Minister N Biren Singh's empty ancestral house on Thursday night, despite a security clampdown and curfew in the Imphal valley.
Violent protests over the death of two youths in Manipur continued till the early hours of Thursday with a mob vandalising the deputy commissioner's office in Imphal West and torching two four-wheelers, officials said.
Armed vigilante groups have been taking the law into their own hands in parts of Manipur, in the wake of ethnic rioting earlier, thus complicating the peace process. At times, militant groups have joined in the fray, creating an even more volatile cocktail of ethnic tension.
A circular issued on Monday night by GAD Secretary Michael Achom said: "In pursuance of the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on June 12 and decision taken at para 5-(12) of the proceedings, all employees drawing their salaries from General Administration Department, Manipur Secretariat are informed that no work, no pay may be invoked to all those employees who do not attend their official duty without authorised leave."
In most parts of the landlocked northeastern state, items such as rice, potato, onion and egg besides LPG cylinders and petrol are selling at rates much above the ones fixed by the government.
An attempt was also made to torch another property of the consumer and food affairs minister and his residence at Khurai in the same district on Friday night but timely intervention prevented it.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday said it has asked Manipur government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation each within four weeks to the next of kin of all the people who died in ethnic clashes since May.
In violence-hit Manipur, the general buzz associated with elections and the related paraphernalia of posters, banners and rallies are missing but it is the presence of these brown boxes with pictures of guns that is symbolic of the strife-ridden society struggling to return to normalcy.
The FIR claimed that one person was killed by the mob as he tried to protect his sister from being raped on May 4 before the two were paraded naked and molested in front of others.
The Imphal Valley in Manipur, which remained peaceful for most of Friday, witnessed sporadic clashes later in the day as more security forces were rushed in from other states by road and air to calm down a state which had witnessed bloody ethnic rioting over the last 48 hours.
The situation in minority-dominated Lilong Chingjao area in Manipur's Thoubal district, where four villagers were gunned down by unidentified assailants, remained calm but tense on Tuesday as additional security forces were deployed, an official said.
There was a brief lull between 3 am and 6 am, but the sounds of indiscriminate firing from Phayeng and Singda villages in the Kangchuk area along the two districts resumed after that.
'The kind of situation we are seeing...we don't believe that this can happen in a settled democracy like India'
The CBI has arrested from Pune a 22-year-old man suspected to be the mastermind behind the case of two missing Manipuri students who were believed to have been killed, officials said.
Stalin told the Manipur chief minister in a letter dated July 31 that he has been informed that more than 50,000 people were staying in relief camps due to the 'prevailing situation' in the northeastern state, apparently referring to the violence there.
Joshi, a 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Manipur cadre, replaced Dr Rajesh Kumar.
So far, 4,000 people have been rescued by the forces from the violence-hit areas, and given shelter, he said, adding that more people are being shifted to safer places.
The incident occurred at Sapormeina when the buses were coming from Dimapur on Tuesday evening.
Demanding the resignation of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal on Tuesday questioned why the CM could not meet the women who were stripped and paraded, when she could do so.
The Manipur high court has directed the state government to operationalise mobile towers, on a trial basis, in all those district headquarters which have not been affected by ethnic strife.
Firing between security forces and armed men has been reported from Pallel area of Manipur's Tengnoupal district since early hours of Friday, officials said.
The militants armed with sophisticated weapons surrounded the villagers of the Khamelok area bordering Imphal East district and Kangpoki district and launched the attack at around 1 am, the police said.
The government on Monday banned nine Meitei extremist groups and their associate organisations, which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities, and launching fatal attacks on security forces.
They staged sit-in demonstrations in various localities blocking roads, demanding the removal of Assam Rifles from violence-hit areas and accusing the paramilitary force of "brutality during recent agitations".
Manipur Police has registered a first information report (FIR) accusing the Assam Rifles of blocking their vehicle after an altercation between the two groups last week, while the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to replace Assam Rifles 'by any other paramilitary force permanently' from the state.
In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said.
The curfew imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will be relaxed from 7 am to 10 am, it said.
The villagers were venting their anger after militants burnt down at least 100 abandoned houses including the residence of Sugnu Congress MLA K Ranjit at Serou in Kakching district on Saturday midnight.
The consequences are dire as essential medical treatments, including dialysis, and medicines for cancer and anti-AIDS drugs remain out of reach for those in desperate need.
The mob tried to storm the camp of 3rd IRB batallion in the Khangabok area to loot arms and ammunition, they said.
Security presence which has been bolstered by flying in more army troops and rapid action force and central police forces was clearly visible at all major areas and roads.
Hours before a planned mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, the state's high court on Thursday ordered that status quo be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district, while ITLF, an apex tribal body also said it was postponing burial service plans following requests from the Union home minister.
The NIA and CBI officials working in Imphal in an ethnically charged environment have been facing the daunting task of completing investigations in various cases, including those related to attacks on Army personnel in 2015, the probe agencies said.
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