Correspondent
IMPHAL, MAY 18: Security forces intensified operations to rescue as the hostage crisis in Manipur entered its sixth day on Monday.
Whereabouts of six Liangmai (Naga) men allegedly held hostage by suspected armed Kuki groups in the aftermath of the killing of three church leaders on May 13 in Kangpokpi district remained untraceable.
At the same time, Kuki based civil society groups are also claiming that 14 Kuki individuals are still in the captivity of the Naga armed group.
Joint teams of state police and security forces have been conducting operations to rescue the missing persons, particularly the six Naga men in the last few days.
The operations were in progress, the police said.
“In continuation of the operations to rescue the missing persons, combing and search operations were carried out by security forces in the hill ranges to the north west of Leilon Vaiphei and Kharam Vaiphei villages in Kangpokpi district. Search operations are continuing,” Manipur police said, in its daily law and order update.
The hostage crisis surfaced in the aftermath of the killing of three religious leaders belonging to the Thadou tribe on May 13 with suspected Kuki armed groups allegedly detained as many as 20 Naga individuals on the same day of killing the three church leaders in an ambush at Zero Point in between Kotlen and Kotzim in Kangpokpi district.
The hostage crisis deepened after suspected Naga armed groups also took captivity of some Kuki individuals in Senapati district.
Around 38 individuals belonging to the Kuki and Naga community were taken hostages out of which 31 were released on the next two days (May 14 and 15) including 12 Naga women from Konsakhul in Kangpokpi district.
Four men and ten women of the Kuki community were also handed over to the security forces in Senapati district.
Two Salesian brothers of Don Bosco, including one from Nagaland, were also released by armed groups at separate locations.
Earlier, police had said that as a result of concerted efforts of the administration, security forces, leaders and civil society organizations, most of the detained civilians, belonging to different communities, have been released safely.
While blaming each other for holding hostages, civil society groups of both Naga and Kuki launched separate stirs pressing for the safe release of the hostages of their respective communities.
The Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has been imposing total shutdown in the Kuki-dominated hill districts while the United Naga Council (UNC) imposed an inter-district economic blockade with effect from May 17 evening.
Both the stirs affected the normal vehicular movement along NH 2 (Imphal-Dimapur) and NH 37 (Imphal-Jiribam), the lifelines of the people of Manipur.
The stir coupled with closure of many petrol pumps on the previous day (Sunday) triggered panic buying of vehicle fuels across the state with people queuing up at the petrol retail outlets from early today morning.
Long queues of vehicles were seen at several outlets across the valley districts since morning hours.
By around noon, almost all petrol pumps across the Imphal city and its outskirts downed their shutters citing stock exhaustion, leaving many motorists without filling their vehicle fuel tanks.