IMPHAL, June 8: The Manipur government on Saturday transferred Jiribam SP A Ghanashyam Sharma, following reports of arson and attacks on two police outposts in the district by suspected militants.
The Jiribam superintendent of police was assigned to the post of additional director of the Manipur Police Training College, according to an order issued by the department of personnel and administrative reforms.
M Pradip Singh, who was serving as the additional director of the police training college, will take charge as the senior superintendent of police of Jiribam district.
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The transfer order was issued hours after police outposts of Jiri Mukh and Choto Bekra and the Goakhal forest beat office were set on fire this morning, a senior officer said.
Suspected militants also torched more than 70 houses of people in Lamtai khunou, Dibong Khunou, Nunkhal and Begra villages, who vacated their residences and took shelter in a relief camp, he said.
A contingent of more than 70 personnel was airlifted from Imphal to Jiribam to assist security personnel in their operations against militants, the officer said.
On Friday, around 239 Meitei people, mostly women and children, were evacuated from peripheral areas of Jiribam, and sent to shelters at Multi Sports Complex in the district.
Tension erupted in Jiribam in the ethnic strife-torn state on Thursday evening after a 59-year-old man was killed by suspected militants, another officer said.
The man, identified as Soibam Saratkumar Singh, went missing after he had gone to his farm on June 6 and  later, his body was found, with wounds made by a sharp object, he said.
Prohibitory orders were clamped there after locals set a few abandoned structures on fire following the recovery of the body of Singh.
Locals had also staged a protest in front of the Jiribam Police Station, demanding that their licenced firearms taken from them in the wake of elections be returned to them after the completion of the polls.
Jiribam, which has a diverse ethnic composition comprising Meiteis, Muslims, Nagas, Kukis and non-Manipuris, had remained unaffected by the ethnic strife which has been raging in Manipur since May last year.
The ethnic conflict between Imphal valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kukis has led to the deaths of over 200 people and rendered thousands of people homeless. (PTI)
