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Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
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4 militants gunned down in Manipur

Correspondent

IMPHAL: Security forces have gunned down four militants in two separate incidents and recovered sophisticated weapons. In the first incident which took place on Saturday night, the combined force of the Imphal East district police commandos and 28 Assam Rifles had killed two militants in an encounter in Irilbung. One AK 56 rifle, one 9 mm pistol and assorted ammunition were recovered.

In the second incident reported on Sunday, the troopers of 12 Assam Rifles had killed two militants in Ukhrul district after a 45-minute gun battle. An official report said that the troopers had launched mopping up operations on receipt of information that some militants were sighted at the high mountains. While two militants were killed on the spot others had managed to escape. The troopers recovered one G-3 rifle, one .303 bolt rifle, assorted ammunition and one Japan-made radio set.

Six outfits banned

The Union government, in a notification, has announced the banning of six underground organisations of non-tribal Manipuris under section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Despite proper notification, the organisations had failed to furnish any affidavit on why their organisations should not be declared unlawful. The outfits are the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its political wing, the Revolutionary People’s Front, the United National Liberation Front, the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak, the Kangleipak Communist Party, Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup and the Manipur People’s Liberation Army formed by the PLA, the Manipur People’s Army and the Red Army. The outfits had spurned the government offer for peace talks and have been carrying on armed violence against the Centre demanding the restoration of independence.

Bandh hits work

Work in government offices in Manipur has been paralysed from Saturday in response to the ‘cease work’ strike called by the Joint Administrative Council (JAC) of the two trade unions of the government employees. They are demanding payment of arrears to the employees and pensioners at the scale fixed as per the recommendations of the sixth pay commission with effect from 2006.

Making a clarification, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi said that the government had already announced that the employees would be paid as per recommendations of the sixth pay commission from April this year. However, payment of the arrears with effect from 2006 was out of question since the government’s coffer did not have that much money. According to him, it will require at least Rs. 2,000 crore to make payments of the arrears. He said that there were about 80,000 government employees in this State.

Rejecting the government explanation, the JAC said that it will go ahead with the strike. Those in the essential services will soon join the strike. It also pointed out that the Manipur Judicial officers would get 73 per cent dearness allowances while those in other departments would get just 47 per cent. .

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