GUWAHATI: The Manipur government has resumed the process of capturing biometric data of Myanmar nationals who had entered the violence-hit state, ‘illegally’.
The development comes after Manipur witnessed widespread violence which claimed the lives of over 160 people, and forced thousands of others to vacate their houses and take shelter in relief camps.
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“The Manipur government has resumed the process of capturing biometric data of the illegal immigrants from Myanmar from Saturday, who had entered the state, on the instruction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA),” Joint Secretary of Home Department, Peter Salam, said in a statement.
The Manipur government officials, who have been entrusted to carry on the process, are being assisted by a team of officials of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), deputed by the MHA.
The statement was issued soon after the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella of Manipur’s valley-based civil society organisations, took out a massive rally in state capital Imphal, against the Chin-Kuki “narco-terrorism” in the state.
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The Manipur home department had earlier directed the Superintendent of Police (SP) of all the districts of the state to immediately resume the process of capturing the biometrics.
A police report submitted to the home department stated that altogether 2480 illegal immigrants from Myanmar have been detected in manipur.
Infiltration of these Myanmar nationals in Manipur started in 2021, amid the unrest in the neighbouring country.
Immigrants from Myanmar, languishing in various foreigner detention centres, shelter homes and judicial custody of the state, have been detected in the districts of Churachandpur, Chandel, Kamjong, Tengnoupal, Imphal East and Imphal West of Manipur.
Some of these immigrants have been also staying in the remote villages of the state on their own.
Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh and the people from Meitei community have blamed the infiltration of these immigrants from Myanmar as the reason for the ongoing unrest in the state.
Manipur shares a 398-kilometer border with Myanmar.