Situation in neighbouring Manipur will impact Assam, says Himanta Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday that the situation in neighbouring Manipur will have an impact on the state.

Additional police forces have been deployed in Barak Valley which shares a border with violence-hit Manipur to ensure no spill-over effects.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme in Cachar district, Sarma said, I think the situation in Manipur will definitely have some impact on Assam. That is why we have deployed additional police forces in Barak Valley to see that nothing spills over to Assam."  The Barak Valley of Cachar district shares a border with Jiribam of Manipur.

 

The ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.

More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.

The violence escalated in Manipur after three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had gone missing from a relief camp in Jiribam district, following a gunfight between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants that resulted in the deaths of 10 insurgents on November 11.

Bodies of those six were later found.