Combing ops on in Manipur to recover looted weapons, force will be used to get them back if required: Army chief

NEW DELHI: The Army is carrying out combing operations to recover the weapons looted from armouries in violence-hit Manipur, and will use force if required to get them back, but has strict instructions to be “absolutely neutral” between the two warring ethnic communities, General Manoj Pande said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Times Network India Economic Conclave, Gen Pande said the Army and Assam Rifles had moved quickly to deploy 130 columns after the ethnic violence between Kuki tribals and Meiteis erupted in Manipur earlier this month and evacuated to safer places a “huge number” of the 36,000 people “internally displaced” in the state.
“We also had 21,000 people who took shelter in our operating bases and posts,” he said. The Army is now “dominating” areas to “ensure physical separation and prevent direct contact” between the two communities.
Along with home minister Amit Shah’s public appeal for the looted weapons to be returned by a certain timeframe, the Army has also stepped-up its combing operations in specific areas to recover the arms. “If required, force will be used to get the weapons back,” Gen Pande said.
“There is also this challenge of misinformation and narratives that we need to be careful about. As far as the Army is concerned, my guidance to the troops and commanders is to be absolutely neutral, to be credible in whatever we are doing. We are there for the good of both the communities,” he added.
On the China front, where the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh has now entered the fourth year, Gen Pande said the Army was maintaining “a very high level of operational preparedness” all along the 3,488-km long line of actual control (LAC).
“Our deployment along the LAC is robust and we have adequate reserves to deal with any contingency. We have also paid attention to our capability development in terms of inducting new technologies, new war-fighting systems,” he said.
The Army chief expressed the hope that the ongoing diplomatic and military talks with China will resolve the remaining “friction points” – at the strategically-located Depsang Plains and Demchok in eastern Ladakh – in the days ahead.
“We need to be patient…It is a process. We must continue the dialogue to resolve the balance issues. We need to come to a common ground that is mutually-acceptable and not disadvantageous to us…that is what the attempt is and it must continue,” he said.
Asked about the rapid infrastructure build-up by China along the entire LAC, Gen Pande said India too had constructed new roads, tunnels, bridges, airfields, advanced landing grounds and helipads as well as enhanced power and communications infrastructure on its side of the frontier.