IMPHAL: Hundreds of women forced an Assam Rifles unit to free five top NSCN(I-M) militants, whom the paramilitary force had caught with AK-47s and other sophisticated weapons, in Manipur's Senapati district on Saturday.
Police said the five rebels, including a "deputy secretary" and two "under secretaries", were nabbed from the headquarters of the Naga-dominated district around 2 pm on Friday. Personnel of the 5 Assam Rifles had found some sophisticated weapons — AK-47s, sten guns and a 9 mm pistol — on them.
As the personnel of the paramilitary force were about to shift the rebels to Imphal, a large number of women staged a blockade on National Highway 39 at Ningthoupham village seeking the militants` release. The women blocked the Assam Rifles` convoy carrying the cadre and other vehicles moving along the highway, the key supply route in the troubled state.
Later, the agitating women gheraoed a post of the country`s oldest paramilitary force at Henbung in the district where the Naga rebels were kept. Police added that around 1 am on Saturday, Assam Rifles was compelled to free the five militants.
5 Assam Rifles comes under the operational command of the Army`s 57 Mountain Division and is stationed at Leimakhong village. Though Assam Rifles did not issue any official statement on the incident, sources in the division confirmed it. The sources added that Assam Rifles was yet to hand over the weapons found on the militants to police.
This is not the first time that police had to face similar protests. In March, a group of irate locals in Tamenglong had raided the paramilitary force`s camp in the town in protest against detention of the Naga outfit`s local "finance-in-charge" and took away an AK-series rifle and a radio set. At least nine Assam Rifles jawans were wounded when the agitators threw stones at the camp. The weapons were later returned to the Assam Rifles through civil officials even as the apprehended Naga rebel leader was flown in an Army helicopter to Imphal.
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