Imphal: Imagi Meira, a women-based pressure group, on Monday expressed strong concern over the government orders asking the people to submit licensed guns in connection with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Concerned members of the group, in a press meet held at Manipur Press Club in Imphal, said that the move will reduce the villagers in the peripheral areas of the valley to being defenseless as the crisis is yet to be ended.
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They asserted that the villagers are defending their villages with licensed arms.
After the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll schedules for the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the deputy commissioners of all the districts in Manipur issued orders to submit licensed arms.
Coordinator L. Shachirani of the group (Imagi Meira), while decrying the orders, said that miscreants armed with sophisticated weapons are continuing their attacks on the settlements in the fringe of the valley districts.
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The village guards armed with licensed guns have been defending villages from the attackers, she claimed, and asked whether the village guards should stop guarding the villages for the sake of elections.
She also said that it is a well-known fact that the miscreants attacking the villages in the fringe of the valley districts are armed with highly sophisticated foreign-origin weapons.
While asserting this, she criticized the ineffectiveness of the Central security forces in protecting the lives and properties of the villagers in the peripheral areas.
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She also criticized the announcement of the poll schedules in the strife-hit Manipur without resolving the crisis unfolding in the state.
At the same time, the coordinator of the organization questioned the motive behind the arrest of three members of the UNLF (P), including its army chief, who are under the ceasefire truce with the government.
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