Nagaland lifts force from border

Manipur protest pays off
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Imphal, Oct. 14: Manipur moved a company of India Reserve Battalion to Akash post at Jessami in Ukhrul district along the state’s boundary with Nagaland as Nagaland Armed Police withdrew today.

The Nagaland government agreed to withdraw the force from the post following a directive from the Union home ministry to facilitate Manipur to open a post of its own force.

Nagaland police had moved into the security post after troops of the BSF were withdrawn for deployment elsewhere about six months ago.

An official source here said the Union home ministry made the move after chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh sent a protest representation to home minister P. Chidambaram against the opening of Nagaland Armed Police on this side of the border.

Ibobi Singh lodged the complaint on October 9 after it was reported that the Nagaland Armed Police had opened a post at the border village on Jessami on Manipur land.

The source said Navin Verma, the joint secretary (Northeast) in the Union home ministry, in a fax message informed Ibobi Singh that the Nagaland government had been directed to withdraw its force and directed him to open a post of the India Reserve Battalion to replace the Nagaland post.

After receiving the home ministry directive, Manipur director-general of police Yumnam Joykumar Singh spoke to his Nagaland counterpart to facilitate the change of forces at the Akash post, located near Akash bridge across the Tizu river that divides Manipur and Nagaland. They fixed today as the day for the replacement.

Another official source in Ukhrul said over phone that one company of the 6th India Reserve Battalion, comprising more than 90 personnel and led by one assistant commandant, left the district headquarters this morning for Jessami, which is about 135km away.
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