Amid an escalation in violence in Manipur, eight companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have reached the state capital Imphal, and these forces will be deployed in sensitive and fringe areas, an official said.

These forces arrived in Imphal on Wednesday, a day after another batch of 11 companies of CAPF reached the state.

"Four companies each of CRPF and BSF will be deployed in sensitive and fringe areas of the state," the official said.

Of the CRPF companies, one belongs to the Mahila Battalion.

The Centre recently announced that 50 fresh companies of CAPF would be deployed in Manipur.

Violence has escalated in the state as offices of the Congress and the BJP have been ransacked in the hill district of Jiribam last week.

The incidents occurred after mobs set fire to the residences of three BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley where an indefinite curfew has been clamped.

Security forces also foiled the attempt of the agitators to storm the ancestral residence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday evening.

The violence escalated after three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had gone missing from a relief camp in Jiribam district after a gunfight between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants that resulted in the deaths of 10 insurgents on November 11.

Bodies of those six were later found over the past few days.

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.

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