'Attempts To Malign Image': Army After Manipur Police's FIR Against Assam Rifles

This is not the first time where the Assam Rifles and Manipur Police have had their differences.

Meitei community women block a road during a demonstration against the Assam Rifles, in Imphal, on Monday, 7 August.

(Photo: PTI)

The Manipur Police and Assam Rifles are engaged in a head-to-head clash over what happened during a recent search operation in the violence-stricken state.

The standoff: Hours after the Manipur Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against a personnel of the Assam Rifles for "obstructing a public servant," the Indian Army released a statement on Wednesday, 9 August, saying that these are "fabricated attempts to malign image of Assam Rifles."

What they're saying: The Manipur Police has stated that it was heading for a search operation to "trace out the accused Kuki militants that might have taken shelter" near Kwakta and Pholjang village in the Meitei-dominated Bishnupur area, on Saturday, 5 August.

• The operation was conducted after three people, including a father-son duo, were killed in their sleep by the armed miscreants, suspected to be "Kukis" from the neigbouring Churachandpur district.

• They further alleged that the police was stopped and blocked by an Assam Rifles personnel who parked their vehicle in the middle of the Kwakta Pholjang road and obstructed in discharging their law bounding duty.

• "As such arrogant act of the personnel of the 9th AR giving a chance to the accused Kuki militants to escape freely to somewhere a safer zone for them," the police claimed.

The police accused the Assam Rifles of disobeying the law and charged it with intent to cause injury to any person, obstructing public servant in discharge of public function, threat to injury to public servant, etc.

Flip side: "Some inimical elements had made desperate, repeated, and failed attempts to question the role, intent, and integrity of the Central security forces, especially Assam Rifles, that are working relentlessly towards saving lives and restoration of peace in Manipur since 3 May," read an army statement released on Tuesday, 8 August.

• “It needs to be understood that due to the complex nature of the situation on the ground in Manipur, occasional differences at tactical level do occur between various security forces. However, all such misunderstandings at the functional level are immediately addressed through the joint mechanism to synergise the efforts for restoration of peace and normalcy in Manipur," the statement read.

Know more: The central paramilitary force have been under critical lens, with Meitei civil society groups and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs in the valley accusing them of siding with a particular community while performing their duties in the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur.

• “Assam Rifles has been charged by the public for their biased role in tackling the situation by favouring and supporting one side only," read a BJP memorandum submitted to PM Modi, as per The Hindu.

• This is not the first time a clash has erupted between the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police.