Imphal, Feb 23 : A team of army personnel and Manipur and Mizoram police arrested the leader of a faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council), Lanheiba Meitei, during a raid conducted in Aizawl yesterday.
A statement released by Col Rajesh Mishra, the spokesperson for the 57th Mountain Division, today said the team arrested Lanheiba Meitei from his residence at Aizawl.
The GOC of the 57th Mountain Division, Maj. Gen. Shakti Gurung, co-ordinated the operation, code-named Operation Grand Slam-II.
The statement said they were tipped off about the rebel leader’s presence in Aizawl and the team left Imphal for Mizoram on February 8.
The police had apprehended Meitei twice earlier but he had always managed to come out on bail. He is now in the custody of Mizoram police for further interrogation.
The incident comes in the wake of the arrest of top leaders of the Kangleipak Communist Party from New Delhi and Bangalore.
A joint raid by the army and Manipur police arrested City Meitei, alias Brojen, who is known to operate as the commander of the KCP mobile task force, from a house in Bangalore on January 19.
Four more leaders of the KCP were arrested from Delhi on January 17.
The police said the KCP (MC) Lanheiba Meitei group was responsible for the IED explosion at the gate of Ragailong village, on the outskirts of Imphal city in October last year, in which 18 people were killed and many more injured.
The Lanheiba Meitei faction was also responsible for exploding a hand grenade in the compound of Imphal Raj Bhavan in December last year, police said.
No one was injured in the explosion.