Insurgent groups in Manipur have started giving calls to boycott the 75th Independence Day celebrations. The Corcom, the apex body of six major insurgent groups, and the United People’s Revolutionary Front of Manipur in their separate press releases said that there shall be total shutdown on August 15. The timings of the boycott are meant to disrupt the official functions by ensuring that people stay indoors.
Some essential services, including social and religious functions and press, will be exempted. Police say that in the past almost all insurgent groups have given boycott calls. Besides, other major underground organisations in the Northeast, except those which are on peace talk mode with the government, boycotted the national functions.
Police and paramilitary forces have been conducting cordon and search operations in all trouble-prone areas. However, police said that so far no insurgents had been apprehended and no gun or bomb recovered.
Police have intensified patrolling and random frisking. Police sources say that security measures have been tightened to ensure an incident-free Independence Day celebrations.
