Man Who Allegedly Shot Dead Senior Cop Arrested From Manipur's Moreh

A man who allegedly shot dead a senior Manipur Police officer in the border town Moreh has been arrested, the police said in a statement today. Another man who allegedly fired at the security forces was also arrested today, they said.

The accused, Phillips Khongsai, was arrested late on Monday evening from the India-Myanmar border town, about 110 km from the state capital Imphal. The other arrested man has been identified as Hemkholal Mate, the chief of K Moulsang village and finance secretary of the Mate Tribe Union, the police said.

The Manipur Police officer, Chingtham Anand, was shot dead on October 31, 2023 while he was overseeing work on a new helipad in Moreh to be used as a landing pad for state forces, which could not travel on the Imphal-Moreh highway after miscreants blocked it at many places.

Insurgents had also ambushed reinforcements sent to Moreh on the day the police officer was killed.

Khongsai and Mate allegedly shot at the vehicles of security forces today before disappearing in a cluster of houses, the police said.

A special commando unit along with the Moreh Police launched a search operation and chased the two suspects in the dark; the security forces managed to overpower them and checked their identities, they said.

Today (15/01/2024) at around 4:30 pm, during round patrolling of Manipur Police Special CDO Teams near Moreh College, the security personnel observed two suspected individuals who opened fire on vehicles of security personnel and ran into a cluster of houses. On being fired upon,... pic.twitter.com/JMpOkpNOkV

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) January 15, 2024

After Khongsai was arrested, many protesters today surrounded the Moreh police station and demanded the accused to be freed, sources said. They alleged the police commandos have arrested innocent men.

The security forces have been fighting insurgents holed up in parts of Moreh in recent weeks.

The border town faces a constant pressure of illegal immigrants and refugees fleeing Myanmar's junta, insurgents, looters, and drug traffickers.

Over 180 have died and thousands have been internally displaced after ethnic clashes broke out between the hill-majority Kukis and the valley-majority Meiteis in May 2023.