Imphal, June 14: Militant groups have targeted Manipur?s premier medical institution for extortion, prompting the administration to turn it into a veritable fortress.

Police commandos joined CRPF and Manipur Armed Police personnel in securing the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Imphal after the authorities reported receiving extortion notes and threats from different militant organisations.

One of these groups ? their identities have not been disclosed ? has demanded Rs 15 lakh from the RIMS management by tomorrow and threatened to abduct senior employees if that demand is not met. Some other outfits have issued extortion notices too.

Officials of the medical institute met this morning to discuss the developments. RIMS director L. Fimate had convened a similar meeting yesterday with representatives of the employees? associations.

Responding promptly to the request for special security arrangements, the Okram Ibobi Singh government deployed armed personnel in and around the hospital complex and asked them to frisk all wayfarers at Lamphel, where the hospital is located. Mobile police teams were pressed into service to supplement the security arrangements.

Confirming the extortion scare, a source at RIMS said one of the militant groups had explicitly stated that failure to meet its demand for money before the deadline would invite a reprisal. He said members of the institute were all the more frightened because a doctor in the hospital had been kidnapped earlier this year.

The militant Manipur Human Rights Guild freed the doctor a few days later, but it remains unclear whether money exchanged hands before the release. The doctor?s family denied paying ransom, while the kidnappers said he had been taken hostage only because the RIMS management had ?showed disrespect? to their organisation.

In another development, the police today started an inquiry to ascertain whether anybody from the department played a role in the loot and plunder by masked goons in the twin districts of East and West Imphal.

Villagers claimed to have found reason to suspect the police?s involvement after two specific encounters with the masked men.

On one occasion, police personnel chased the culprits along with a mob but allegedly did not try hard to catch them.

A senior police official said stringent action would be taken against anybody found guilty of playing a role in these incidents. He said the chief minister, who holds the home portfolio, had asked the director-general of police not to transfer personnel from the two districts till such time the inquiry panel completed its task.