In Manipur, efforts on to bring back sense of normalcy: EAM Jaishankar

Gov'ts in India & Manipur seek to restore normalcy & enforce law & order. UN experts raised alarm on human rights violations & abuses in Manipur. India rejected comments, calling them "unwarranted, presumptive & misleading".

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said efforts are on in Manipur by the State and the central governments to find a way by which a sense of normalcy returns and there is adequate law-and-order enforcement.

"...I think one part of the problem in Manipur has been the destabilising impact of migrants who have come," he said on September 26 at the Council on Foreign Relations in response to a question on the situation in the northeastern State in India.

"But there are also tensions which obviously have a long history which precede that. And today, I think the effort is on the part of the State government and the Union government to find a way by which a sense of normalcy returns, that arms which were seized during that period are recovered, that there is an adequate law-and-order enforcement out there so that incidents of violence don't happen," the Minister said.

Earlier this month, a group of United Nations experts said they are "appalled" by reports and images of violence in Manipur targeting women and girls, and urged the Indian government to take robust action to investigate the incidents and hold the perpetrators to account.

The experts raised an alarm on reports of serious human rights violations and abuses in Manipur, including acts of alleged sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, home destruction, forced displacement, torture and ill-treatment.

India had rejected these comments, calling them "unwarranted, presumptive and misleading”, and asserted that the situation in the State was peaceful.

Mr. Jaishankar was asked about him dismissing these comments as "presumptive".