Centre Transfers Srinagar SSP Rakesh Balwal To Manipur Amid Fresh Violence

Srinagar: As violence continues to rock Manipur, the Centre has deployed senior IPS officer Rakesh Balwal from Jammu and Kashmir to the northeastern state. Balwal, who belongs to the 2012 batch of IPS, was working as the Srinagar SSP since late 2021 and has been transferred back to his home cadre Manipur where the situation has been volatile for the last few months. An official order said that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the Ministry of Home Affairs’ proposal for early repatriation of Rakesh Balwal, IPS, from AGMUT cadre to Manipur cadre.

Balwal had served as an SP with the NIA for three-and-half years before becoming the Srinagar SSP and was part of the team that probed the 2019 Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.

The ethnic violence in Manipur erupted on May 3, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was held in the hill districts to oppose the demand for Scheduled Tribe status by the majority Meitei community. Since then, more than 180 people have lost their lives and several hundred have been injured.

The violence flared up again on Tuesday, when students took to the streets after photos of two youths who had gone missing in July surfaced on social media. The protests turned violent on Wednesday night and continued till Thursday morning, with a mob setting fire to two vehicles and ransacking the deputy commissioner’s office in Imphal West, officials said.

The security forces had to use tear gas shells to disperse the protesters who clashed with them in Uripok, Yaiskul, Sagolband and Tera areas, they said.