Imphal: In a major anti-drug operation, security forces have destroyed nearly 53 acres of illegal poppy cultivation in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, police said on Thursday.
According to a police statement, a joint team comprising security personnel and the Kangpokpi Forest Division carried out the operation on Wednesday across six locations in the Phailengkot–Makhan hill ranges within the Koubru Reserve Forest area.
Authorities also razed seven farm huts allegedly used by the cultivators, the statement added.
Additionally, 35 packets of salt, reportedly used for processing and maintaining the poppy plantations, were recovered and destroyed at the site.
Authorities said that heightened surveillance and coordinated operations will continue in the region to prevent further encroachment and illegal cultivation inside the reserve forest areas.
In a seperate incident, security forces on Wednesday arrested an active cadre of the proscribed outfit PREPAK (PRO) in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, officials said.
The accused, identified as 33-year-old Pukhrambam Diamond Singh of Bishnupur Awang Leikai was apprehended at the Tera Urak crossing checkpoint under Bishnupur police station.
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According to authorities, Singh had been involved in extorting money from the general public, local businessmen and shopkeepers in the Imphal East area. A mobile phone was recovered from his possession.
