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New Delhi, June 20, 2023 (PPI-OT): In a bid to extinguish the fire of communal tension in Manipur state of India, the authorities are planning to draw and an ethnic divide in the state by erecting walls in the name of buffer zones. The Indian security forces have demarcated lines on either side of their new posts – ranging from a few hundred metres to even a kilometre, depending on the proximity of villages – which the Meitei and Kuki populations are not allowed to cross.
The security establishment is pinning its hopes on creation of buffer zones on the fringes of the Imphal valley where Metei-dominated areas give way to the Kuki-populated hills. It is this ring around the valley that has witnessed maximum arson and gun battles between Meitei and Kuki mobs after the first wave of violence in early May subsided. The buffer zones have been mapped according to vulnerability of areas to gunfire and arson, proximity of Meitei and Kuki villages and the topographical arrangement of habitats.
Based on these, the security establishment has put columns of the Army, Assam Rifles and the BSF in these zones. The almost daily incidents of arson or law and order breakdown in and around Imphal city has also kept a significant section of the Central forces in urban areas – these would have otherwise been deployed on the fringes of the valley.
The two sides are also flying drones to monitor each other’s activities while communication is being done through police radios looted from armouries. Last week, during an arson attempt in the New Checkon area of Imphal, the mob fired tear gas shells at the Rapid Action Force. “We have never come across something like this. I had to deploy two men just to put out shells fired by the crowd,” an RAF officer said.
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