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Manipur, June 25: Security forces released 12 Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) militants in Manipur's Itham village after a mob of over 1200 people led by women, surrounded the target area and prevented them from continuing with the operation, stated an official release from Defence PRO.
The Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), a Meitei militant group, was involved in a number of attacks, including the ambush of a 6 Dogra unit in 2015.
The search operation was carried out acting on specific intelligence, in village Itham (06 km East of Andro) in Imphal East district on June 24 morning. The forces seized arms, ammunition and war-like stores.
"The area was cordoned before the specific search commenced to avoid inconvenience to the locals. The operation resulted in the apprehension of 12 KYKL cadres along with arms, ammunition and war-like stores," the release said.
It stated that a mob of approximately 1200-1500, led by women and the local leader immediately surrounded the target area and prevented Security Forces from continuing with the operation, despite repeated appeals, to the aggressive mob, as per law. However, it did not yield any positive results.
"Keeping in view the sensitivity of the use of kinetic force against a large irate mob and envisaged casualties due to such action, the officer on the ground made a considerate decision to hand over all 12 cadres to the local leader. Own columns lifted the cordon and left the area with weapons and war-like stores, recovered from insurgents," it read.
According to the press release, self-styled Lt Col Moirangthem Tamba alias Uttam was positively identified.