Ambush on Manipur CM’s advance security a total failure of intelligence: Ibobi

Manipur Congress Legislator Party leader Okram Ibobi on Tuesday condemned the attack on chief minister N. Biren Singh’s advance security convoy along NH-37 and said it is a total failure of the state government’s intelligence.

Ibobi, who has served as the chief minister of Manipur for three consecutive terms, told the media at the Manipur Congress office in Imphal that the ambush on the CM’s advance security convoy happened due to the failure to take proper security measures.

Instead of evacuating people from red zone areas of Moreh, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, and Jiribam, both the state and central governments should protect the people, he added.

Reacting to an allegation made by Biren Singh earlier that the Congress party signed an agreement with a particular community to give separate administration if the Congress won the recent election, Ibobi said that if the chief minister has guts, he should present concrete evidence. The Congress party, up to the highest level, will face the consequences, he said.

The chief minister, after his return from New Delhi, where he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was planning to visit Jiribam on Tuesday in connection with the recent violence in the bordering district of Manipur.

A day ahead of the CM’s visit, the advanced security convoy was ambushed along NH-37 (Imphal-Silchar via Jiribam) road by armed miscreants using sophisticated weapons. During the incident, two persons received bullet injuries; however, they are out of danger.

Manipur police, along with central forces, recovered empty cases of AK and LMG rifles on the elevated hill slopes near the ambush site during a search operation after the incident. Some temporary bunkers were also found, suspected to have been used by the armed militants at the time of the ambush.

On Tuesday, the convenor of Thawai Mirel (a civil society organisation) in Imphal questioned whether monitoring the Jiribam issue is solely the duty of chief minister N. Biren Singh. The 50 MLAs, including Biren Singh, should go to Jiribam at the earliest to monitor and solve the issues there, Mirel said.

Violence reignited in Manipur after a 59-year-old man was found beheaded in Jiribam district following a missing report on June 6. After the incident, over 70 houses and government offices, including a police outpost and a forest beat office, were set on fire, causing hundreds of people to flee to safer places, even in the neighbouring state of Assam.

However, the chief minister has planned to visit Jiribam in the next few days, although the schedule of his visit is yet to be confirmeda.