Imphal: Ten Kuki-Zo MLAs of Manipur wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to ensure that Assam Rifles continue to guard sensitive areas of the ethnic strife-torn state and are not replaced by CRPF.

In the letter, the MLAs said that when the Centre was working to end the conflict, removing the Assam Rifles and replacing it with a new force “with no comparable knowledge of the terrain or the people” could result in an escalation of violence.

The letter came amid reports that two battalions of Assam Rifles deployed in Kangvai and Kangpokpi would be replaced by CRPF.

The Kuki-Zo MLAs hailed the Assam Rifles as a “neutral force” and the purported move to replace it with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) as a “sinister design”.

“We have come to learn that there is a plan to withdraw 9th Bn and 22nd Battalion of AR from their current sensitive deployment in Kangvai and Kangpokpi. This wholesome decision to replace the aforementioned AR battalions with CRPF at this critical juncture is nothing but a sinister design,” the legislators said in a memorandum.

Their call for the prime minister’s intervention came after media reports claimed that a large number of Assam Rifles troops would be moved out from the state and deployed in Jammu.