NEW DELHI: Militia fighters from rival ethnic groups in India’s conflict-torn Manipur have surrendered scores of guns and other gear looted from security forces, police said Friday, days after the state was placed under New Delhi’s direct rule.
Manipur has been split along ethnic lines since the outbreak of deadly violence between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community in May 2023.
At least 260 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the northeastern state along India’s border with war-torn Myanmar.
The state’s chief minister, N Biren Singh, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, resigned this month after criticism that his government had not done enough to quell the violence.
Community groups welcomed his resignation and the subsequent imposition of direct rule by New Delhi, hoping it would end mutual suspicions and allegations by the rival ethnic groups of favouritism by the state authorities.
The Manipur police, in a series of posts on X on Friday, shared photos of hand grenades, pistols, rifles, helmets, bulletproof jackets and ammunition surrendered by ethnic militias from across the state.
At least 307 weapons were handed over in the last week, police said in a statement.
The “request for the surrender of looted and illegally held weapons and ammunition has yielded a positive response”, it added.
“Such voluntary surrender of weapons will significantly help in restoring peace, communal harmony and lawfulness in the state of Manipur.”
India imposes direct rule on its restive Manipur state
Those who gave up weapons would not be criminally charged, police said.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.
Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.
Internet services were shut down for months in Manipur during the outbreak of violence, which displaced around 60,000 people from their homes, according to government figures.
Thousands of the state’s residents have still not returned home due to ongoing tensions.
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