Peaceful dialogue only solution to ethnic conflict: Manipur police chief

There has been a lot of damage and normal life has been disrupted... But things have improved in the last one-and-a-half years, DGP Manipur said

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Manipur police chief Rajiv Singh on Sunday said that peaceful dialogue is the only solution to resolve the ethnic conflict in the state.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 134th Raising Day in Imphal, DGP Singh said, "These are very challenging times but we have been trying to tackle them with the best possible strength, and with the cooperation of everyone."  "There are problems which we are trying to solve at the earliest because we also want peace and normalcy as quickly as possible. There has been a lot of damage and normal life has been disrupted... But things have improved in the last one-and-a-half years," Singh said.

"Violence, deaths and injuries have come down. There are sporadic incidents of arson and firing, but the security forces are alert and everybody is on the job to see that nothing escalates.

"I request communities on both sides to come forward with suggestions and try to talk it out. The only solution to this problem is peaceful dialogue between both communities (Meitei and Kuki) by taking into account all the stakeholders," the DGP said.

He also said that Manipur Police is a civilian-friendly force.

There have been instances where the security forces have not pushed themselves because otherwise, it would have resulted in a lot of damage to innocent civilians, the officer said.

Earlier, addressing a gathering at the 1st Manipur Rifles parade ground, Singh said, "As many as 3,014 illegal arms and 30,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered, while over 1,000 illegally possessed arms along with 15,000 ammunition have been surrendered before security forces over the past year."  He added that 445 IEDs and 809 hand grenades were recovered over the past year, during which 26 insurgents were detained under the National Security Act.