Imphal: Altogether 17 trucks which went to collect gas from Assam, were stopped at Maram area in Manipur's Senapati district and forced to return to Imphal by Naga militants for non payment of their demand money, official sources said today.

Sources said in all 19 trucks left Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant at Awang Sekmai near here yesterday to collect gas from Assam but they were stopped at Maram area by militants who claimed to be cadres of NSCN-IM.

While the first two trucks crossed Manipur-Nagaland border at Mao, the drivers of the remaining trucks were told that there was no agreement between government and NSCN-IM over the issue and forced them to return to Imphal, sources said.

They said NSCN-IM had demanded Rs 15 lakhs as godown tax from the bottling plant.

Sources said state government had earlier informed the Dimapur-based cease fire monitoring centre (CFMC) to pressurise NSCN-IM since the latter was having peace talks with central government in the past ten year.

Meanwhile, sources in the bottling plant said they would stop distributing cooking gas cylinders to customers as there was no gas at the bottling plant.
Source : PTI