Security officials familiar with the matter said that not all of the 1,077 weapons surrendered till Friday morning were among those looted, suggesting that many of the 6,500 weapons and 600,000 rounds of ammunition looted from armouries are still with civilians and militant groups. The weapons were looted following the breakout of ethnic violence in the state at different times in May, June and August 2023. The most recent was on February 9, 2025 when mobs looted at least nine guns and ammunition in the state’s Thoubal district.

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Manipur police will now try to match the surrendered weapons with the looted ones, not an easy task given that serial numbers and markings have been tampered with in many cases. They will also try and make sense of the stockpile of surrendered items, significant and insignificant, country made and foreign weapons, and things that are easily available online or in local markets.

With the bulk of the weapons still in hands of civilians and militant groups, security forces are awaiting the governor’s directions on the future course of actions.

At least 250 people died and 60,000 were rendered homeless in the ethnic clashes between Kuki-Zo and Meitei groups that started on May 4, 2023. Over 22 months after the clashes first broke out, normalcy is yet to be restored in the state. Last month, the Centre imposed the President’s rule in Manipur, days after chief minister N Biren Singh resigned following a rebellion by some ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators against Singh.

The list of surrendered items (according to list prepared by the police and reviewed by Hindustan Times) includes at least 88 bombs including one which according to police “seems to be old, slightly pointed and weighs about 5kg”; at least 172 Baofeng walkie talkie sets and 62 other sets; 101 pairs of shoes and military boots including 17 “hunting boots” and 20 “jungle boots” that are easily available; 381 helmets; 42 pairs of camo trousers; 28 caps; 224 bullet-proof vests; 37 T-shirts; 7 pepper spray canisters; one sleeping bag; and one Khukri.

Among the 1,077 surrendered guns are at least 101 country made rifles and pistols of single bore and double bore, carbines, stun guns, and locally made AK-47 lookalikes.

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“Militants may have submitted some innocuous items, but for the forces, this has become an opportunity to see how they not only used foreign weapons but developed their own. We suspect these highly sophisticated country made carbines and AK series rifles, were made in jungles of Myanmar and not in India. There were at least two dozen locally made grenades surrendered too. Just imagine, they not only have country made and imported grenade launchers, but even locally made grenades too. These are just surrendered ones, so one can clearly see that there is no dearth of weapons,” said a Manipur police officer who asked not to be named .

A second police officer added, also on condition of anonymity, that one positive outcome during the amnesty period was the surrender of locally made mortars or Pompi guns (as they are called) . The country made mortars, which have a capacity of throwing bombs 5-10km, have been widely used in ethnic clashes. In these two weeks, the forces received at least 116 Pompi mortars.

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“There are two ways to look at the surrender of Pompis. One is that the situation is better and militants have returned country made mortars; the second is that the surrender was for optics and they can manufacture Pompi guns anytime in the jungles,” an officer from the central armed police force said.

But, some of the items surrendered have also corroborated theories put forth by security forces: one, on the use of foreign weapons; two, on the use of Baofeng walkie-talkies by militants; and three, on civilians and militants dressed up as security forces carrying out attacks.

“The past two weeks have shown the extent of weapons among the civilians and militants. The response was better compared to the earlier such amnesty offers by state government. But, it is important to disarm them if some sense of peace is to be returned,” the second officer added.

He pointed out that security forces have not carried out any major operation “for the past two weeks” and that they are now awaiting further orders.