The government of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has prematurely repatriated IPS officer Rakesh Balwal, posted as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), in Srinagar to violence hit Manipur.
The development comes after fresh violence erupted in Manipur this week over the brutal killings of two students, one of whom was a minor, who went missing in July.
Protests were reported from Imphal West, Uripok, Yaiskul, Sagolband, and Tera with military personnel firing multiple rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.
Officer Balwal, who headed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team that probed the 2019 Pulwama attack, was appointed as the Senior Superintendent of Police to Srinagar in December 2021, after the city reported growing militant attacks.
He is a 2012 batch IPS officer, was moved from the Manipur cadre to the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre for a period of three years in a relaxation of policy in November 2021.