By IFP Staff Reporter
Imphal, Sep 7: The underground Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) has claimed that three of their cadres who surrendered along with arms and ammunitions to DGP Manipur and IGAR (South) at Mantripukhri yesterday were deserters from their camp.
According to the statement of the RPF signed by one GM Chanjou, chief of the Department of the Publicity of the RPF, the reported news item carried in various local dailies in connection with the surrender of the three individuals identified them as S/S Lance Corporal Ronenson alias Joychandra Singh, S/S Lance Corporal Gokul Meitei and S/S Lance Corporal Momo alias Nauba Meitei.
The militant cadres surrendered arms which include a US-made M-16 along with 11 live ammunitions, an AK-47 rifle along with 11 live ammunitions and one 9mm pistol along with two live ammunitions yesterday, and were about to be announced as deserters by the outfit as they had been missing from their duty areas since August 3 evening.
The release further mentioned that the outfit on confirming their disappearance from their respective camps along with several arms and ammunitions put up the matter to the their central leaders, amidst which the artificial surrender drama was conducted. Another concern for the front was that the arms and ammunition that accompanied the deserters were found not to match with those taken away by the three cadres during the surrender ceremony yesterday held at the IGAR South Complex, where state DGP Y Joykumar and IGAR South CA Krishnan were present.
Army Number 2918 Lance Corporal Gokul, carried away one M22 pistol with one magazine and 29 live rounds, Private Ronenson carried away one Colt Commando with five magazine and 150 live rounds, two bombs, V-82 Icom RT set-1 and Private Momo carried away one M22 pistol with three magazines containing 250 rounds and two bombs.
The statement further mentioned that the failure of the authority to mention the right numbers of arms and ammunition that have been surrendered to the media indicate the possibility of another concocted drama of fake encounter killings in the state and also indicate that the security forces in the state are going to continue their hidden warfare in the continuing counter insurgency operations in the state and the weapons which they failed to disclose will surely be produced during the artificial killings in the future encounters with the security forces in the state, the statement added.
