Manipur Unrest: More arms looted. Are authorities turning a blind eye?

Are these ordinary civilians who are part of the mob who looted the weapons or are these possible insurgents who have entered the valley in recent weeks and have mingled

After looting two armouries of the India Reserve Battalion in the Manipur Valley on Friday and decamping with more than 300 sophisticated weapons, an aggressive mob in Imphal tried to snatch weapons from a contingent of the Manipur Police commandos on Saturday.

Top security officials said the mob did manage to snatch a few weapons but the commandos opened fire and managed to recover the weapons. Details are sketchy as of now but sources said there was a chaos in the area after the mob action and a woman was injured in the melee.

Questions are increasingly being asked now as to whether these looting of weapons were audacious acts by the mob or whether they could get away with their weapons loot because the owners of these weapons actually decided to look the other way.

During the early waves of the violence, 4000 sophisticated weapons and 5 lakh rounds of ammunition were looted, of which only around 1000 weapons were recovered. On Friday, 300 plus weapons, including mortar bombs, bullet proof jackets and even light machine guns were taken away under the nose of paramilitary forces.

Are these ordinary civilians who are part of the mob who looted the weapons or are these possible insurgents who have entered the valley in recent weeks and have mingled with the masses? Only an investigation will bring things to light. But what is also significant is that one has not heard in public of any heads rolling in the concerned IRB battalions from where the arms were looted.

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