Centre to deploy 5,000 personnel to Manipur as Amit Shah reviews situation

The Centre has decided to send an additional 50 CAPF companies comprising more than 5,000 personnel to Manipur in view of the “challenging” security and law and order situation in the northeastern state, official sources said on Monday.

This comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) rushed 20 additional CAPF companies, 15 from the CRPF and five from the BSF, to the state following an order issued on November 12 after violence broke out in Jiribam district and spread to other places.

An additional 50 companies have been ordered to be rushed to Manipur by this week.

While 35 units will be drawn from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the rest will be from the Border Security Force (BSF), the sources told PTI.

CRPF Director General (CRPF) A D Singh and senior officers from other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are also present in the state.

The central government had reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in six police station areas of Manipur, including the violence-affected Jiribam, on Thursday.

With last week’s deployment, a total of 218 CAPF companies are now present in the state, which has been reeling from ethnic strife since May last year.

A deployment plan is being drawn to base these new 50 units in Manipur as per the violence levels being reported and the dynamic law and order situation in consultation with the state government and the MHA, the sources said.