In a follow-up search operation after the gunning down of a police officer in Manipur’s border town of Moreh on Tuesday, a joint security team on Wednesday arrested 32 Myanmarese, who recently entered the northeastern state illegally.
A police officer said that out of the 32, 10 were flown to Imphal by a helicopter for further questioning while the remaining 22 have been kept at the Moreh police station.
Sub-divisional police officer (Moreh), Chingtham Anand Kumar, was gunned down on Tuesday by the suspected militants while he was overseeing the cleaning of a proposed site of a helipad at the border town, 110 km south of Imphal.
The joint security team, including special police commandos, India Reserve Battalion, and Assam Rifles rounded up around 44 people belonging to the Kuki tribal community.
The security team, during verification, detected the 32 Myanmar nationals who entered Moreh without any valid documents, the officer said.
As 10 of them need to be verified further, they were flown to Imphal and are currently being kept at the foreigners’ detention centre in Imphal East district.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh led the people in paying last respect to the slain police officer at the 1st Battalion Manipur Rifles complex here.
The last rites of the police officer were later performed at his native village.
The Chief Minister later took to Facebook and said, “Paid humble tributes and deepest respects to Shri Chingtham Anand Kumar, MPS, SDPO, Moreh, who was martyred in the line of duty.”
“Manipur has lost a true son of the soil today, but your sacrifices for the nation will not go in vain. I pray for the departed soul to rest in eternal peace,” added the CM.
Governor Anusuiya Uikey also prayed for eternal peace to his soul.
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