GUWAHATI: Assam Rifles director general (DG) Lt Gen PC Nair visited the border town of Moreh in Manipur on Wednesday (January 10), given the present escalated security situation and persistent attacks on security forces.
Lt Gen Nair was briefed at Moreh in Manipur by the sector commander Brig VP Yadav on the present security situation.
The Assam Rifles DG met with members of the civil society organizations (CSOs) at Moreh in Manipur.
The CSO leaders, who attended the meeting, were from the Hill Tribe Council, Kuki Students Organization, Kuki Women Union, Human Rights Moreh, Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal, Tamil Sangam, Gorkha Samaj Samiti and Manipur Muslims Council.
Moreh township, which lies along the Indo-Myanmar border on the Indian side in Manipur, has seen increased violence since the last week of December 2023.
In his interaction with the CSOs, the Assam Rifles DG said that Moreh is a township that is very different from the other towns in Manipur because of its cosmopolitan nature.
People from the Kuki, Meitei, Naga, Tamil, Pangal, Gorkha, Sikh and other communities have been residing for decades in peace and harmony.
The past eight months of strife that was preceded by two years of COVID-19 has greatly affected the lives of the children and youths at Moreh in Manipur.
Their future is at stake and thus there is no other alternative but to shun violence, the Assam Rifles DG said.
“All their grievances will be looked into and studied but it is for the people of Moreh particularly the women to actively act towards the restoration of peace,” he added.
Sounding a note of caution, he also asked all the civil society groups to tell those moving around with weapons that the central security forces shall retaliate appropriately if provoked or fired upon. It is in everybody’s interest to restore peace and thus everyone’s responsibility to work towards it, the DG also said.
“Assam Rifles will always live up to the sobriquet of Friends of the Northeast even in the most challenging circumstances,” he also said.
The DGAR's visit aimed to enhance coordination among civil society groups and open channels of communication between security forces and civil society groups.
