Manipur : Armed miscreants killed youth, injured 2, curfew

way2barak, May 24 : In fresh incidents of violence, a youth was gunned down by the armed miscreants of different community while two other injured in separate incidents in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Wednesday, police said.

In view of the violent incidents, district authorities have cancelled the curfew relaxation in Bishnupur, Imphal East and Imphal West districts, where curfew was relaxed from 5 a.m. in the morning to 4 p.m. in the afternoon.

Police officials in Imphal said that some armed youths had raided a few villages in Moirang in Bishnupur district on Wednesday.

On hearing the furor, some inmates of a relief camp at Moirang came out to see what was happening and in the meantime a youth Toijam Chandramani, 29, was hit by bullet from the back

Chandramani was immediately taken to a private hospital in a serious condition and after some time he succumbed to the bullet wound.

Tension escalated after the death of the youth.

Additional para-military and police personnel have been deployed to control the situation.

According to police, some miscreants belonging to a particular community torched three houses of different communities at Phoubakchao in Bishnupur district on Tuesday night.

In retaliation, some youths of another community burnt down four houses.

Since May 3, when the ethnic violence erupted in 11 of the 16 districts in Manipur, indefinite curfew was imposed and internet services were suspended while sporadic incidents of violence reported almost every day.

Army, Assam Rifles and Territorial Army have been deployed in 23 most sensitive and most volatile police station areas in 11 districts.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, who also holds the Home portfolio, said his government had sought more companies of central forces to deal with the recurring violence in some areas.

In the recent widespread ethnic violence in Manipur so far 71 people have been killed, 300 people injured including police personnel, nearly 1,700 houses were burnt, and more than 200 vehicles destroyed.

As the BJP government in Manipur sought more central forces in the state, the Congress leaders in Manipur were suspicions by bringing in more companies of the Central forces in the state the government has attempted to turn to “Kashmirisation” of Manipur.

“It seems that more inflow of huge numbers of Central forces in the state might turn out to be an attempt to suppress the people just like in Kashmir,” Manipur Congress vice-president Hareshwar Goswami said on Wednesday.

He claimed that the failure of the government to secure civilians in the peripheral areas of the valley, despite having sufficient Army and various central forces.

“There might be some hidden agenda of the BJP government to deal with the present conflict. That’s why they sought more and more central forces,” the Congress leader said.

Refuting the state government’s claim of normalcy being restored, he pointed out that incidents of violence happening across the state in the last few days and the continuation of ban on internet services and curfew shows otherwise.

Compensations for victims of Kerala’s boat capsize incident were given within a week after the incident, but even after three weeks, the government has not provided compensation to the victims and affected people in Manipur, Goshwami said, questioning why the state government is dealing lethargically.

The Congress had earlier dubbed the violence in Manipur “pre-planned” and demanded immediate imposition of President’s Rule in the BJP-ruled state

Several AICC teams visited the strife torn state and talked to the people of different communities in violence hit districts.