Giant drop box set up to collect looted weapons, no questions will be asked

GUWAHATI: Manipur BJP legislator L Susindro on Friday placed a drop-box outside his Imphal East residence with a message to those who looted police stations and armouries of the Manipur Rifles and India Reserve Battalion to “please drop your snatched weapons here”. “Feel free to do so,” the label says, flanked by pictures of automatic weapons.
The legislator from Khurai constituency of Imphal East district was unavailable for comment, but a source said anyone turning up to drop a weapon wouldn’t be questioned or asked to reveal one’s identity.
More than 4,000 weapons and thousands of rounds of assorted ammunition were snatched by mobs targetingpolice armouries during the rioting that accompanied ethnic clashes in the state sinceMay 3. Amid appeals by Amit Shah and CM N Biren Singh to return these weapons and ammunition, security forces have recovered 900-odd weapons during combing operations. Many of these weapons had been dumped in jungles and other isolated locations.
On Thursday, at least 35 weapons and “war-like stores” were recovered during joint combing operations by security forces, officials said.
The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, a conglomerate of Imphal valleybased organisations, said at a convention that people needed to retain weapons until the situation returned to normal. It said instead of arms being taken away, citizens should be given more weapons to “protect and safeguard Manipur”.