Reported by Bit Irom
Imphal: Plots by anti-social elements to trigger bloodshed in Manipur’s Imphal East district were foiled by alert security forces on Saturday, police reported on Sunday.
Bomb experts from central security forces, in coordination with Manipur Police, neutralised explosive devices and averted a potential terror incident in the foothill area of Nongmaijing Chingkhong under Irilbung police station in Imphal East district.
Acting on a tip-off, a combined team of civil police, Assam Rifles, and CRPF personnel, equipped with a metal detector and a sniffer dog, launched a search operation that led to the recovery of a large cache of arms, explosives, and ammunition.
During the search, the sniffer dog detected the presence of a concealed explosive device hidden inside a bush.
A subsequent inspection resulted in the recovery of a cache that included a 13-kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED), rifles, ammunition, a walkie-talkie set, flare rounds, and protective gear such as bulletproof jackets and headgear.
According to Manipur Police, the IED was successfully defused. No arrests were made during the operation, which lasted for around two hours. The recovered items were deposited at the police station, and legal proceedings are underway.
The recovered items included one INSAS rifle with a magazine, one .303 rifle, one .32 pistol, 11 hand grenades, and 19 rounds of 2.1 mortar ammunition.
Security personnel also recovered two HE ammunition rounds, one IED explosive rod, around 13 kg of IED explosive materials, and several magazines of different weapons, including INSAS and .303 LMG magazines.
Other items recovered included 40 detonators, seven SLR breech blocks, four SLR firing pin extensions, one SLR gas plug, 38 cortex explosive materials, three PEK diamond explosives, one fitted IED control box with PVC covering, one hand grenade key, 195 live rounds of ammunition of different calibres, and nine .303 ammunition chargers.