New Delhi: Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Friday reached Manipur for a security review of the strife-torn state, officials aware of the matter said. This is Dwivedi’s first visit to the state after taking over as army chief from General Manoj Pande on June 30.
Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi met Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh during his visit to the state (X/@NBirenSingh)
Dwivedi’s visit is aimed at reviewing the army’s operational readiness, the officials said. He will return to Delhi on Saturday.
During his visit, the army chief met with chief minister N Biren Singh at his residence in Imphal.
Following the meeting, Singh took to X, saying, “Had a productive meeting with General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff, along with Lieutenant General RC Tiwari, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Lieutenant General Abhijit S Pendharkar, General Officer Commanding 3 Corps, and Major General Ravroop Singh, Inspector General Assam Rifles (South) at my Secretariat.”
“I deeply appreciate General Dwivedi’s visit to Manipur. We deliberated on critical issues concerning the current situation in our state. We reaffirmed the cooperation between the state government and the security forces in effectively responding to the challenges we face, maintaining peace and harmony in the state,” he further wrote.
Since May 2023, Manipur has been rocked by ethnic clashes between the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis, with other communities increasingly getting sucked into the violence that has continued unabated.
Over the past 10 months, at least 220 people, including security personnel, have lost their lives, and over 50,000 people have been displaced.
Divisions still exist on the ground and people from one community are not allowed to enter an area where those from the other community are in a majority. Despite heavy deployment of central security forces and the army, sporadic violence continues, thanks to nearly 4,000 arms looted from state armories which are still in the hands of civilians.
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