Imphal: A live hand grenade was found on Thursday outside the rented house of Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a supervisor for a contractor at a military station in Manipur, who remains missing for around 40 days, officials said.
A police official said that the hand grenade was found in front of the gate of Singh’s house at Loitang Khunou in Imphal West district and immediately, a police team went to the spot to retrieve it and experts defused it.
Police also recovered a note along with the grenade.
“The note demanded to disband the Joint Action Committee and form a new JAC,” the official said.
The JAC, along with many other organisations, including Meira Paibis (women vigilantes in Manipur), have been organising agitations to rescue Kamalbabu Singh, who went missing on November 25.
The Manipur government last week handed over the “missing” case to the CBI.
Defence sources said that around 2,000 soldiers of the Army and Assam Rifles continued their hectic search operation to locate Kamalbabu Singh.
The Army officials are constantly interacting with village heads and community elders to gather information to further intensify the search operation, the sources said, adding that the CCTV feeds have been scanned, Kamalbabu Singh’s co-workers were being spoken to, and an intense search operation, including with the aid of sniffer dogs, has been continued.
Manipur Police also separately conducted the search operation to locate Kamalbabu Singh, a resident of Gossaipur under Cachar district in southern Assam, who was staying at Loitang Khunou village in Imphal West.
He had left his residence on November 25 for the Leimakhong military station but went missing.
He was working as a supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) at Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division at Kangpokpi.
The JAC and the Meira Paibis have also sought intervention of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to locate the man.
The JAC leaders and other agitating organisations’ representatives have, on a number of occasions, met Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and discussed the “abduction” of Kamalbabu Singh.
The Chief Minister earlier urged the Army to undertake all-out efforts to locate and rescue Kamalbabu Singh and take responsibility for finding him.
State Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo Singh said that all documents related to Kamalbabu Singh were sent to the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the offices of the Defence Minister and Home Minister to take appropriate actions.
The Manipur High Court had earlier constituted a four-member committee to conduct an enquiry in connection with the missing man.
Leimakhong military station, located 16 km away from the capital Imphal, is surrounded by Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas.
After ethnic violence broke out in Manipur in May last year, people belonging to the Meitei community fled the areas near Leimakhong village.
(IANS)
