Manipur witness more violence on Tuesday when unidentified armed men, suspected to be cadres of banned terror groups, attacked people from the tribal community in the morning killing three of them in Kangpokpi district, officials said.
A group of people tried to gherao the residence of Union Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh in Imphal East district claiming that the government in the strife-torn state is not doing enough to protect locals from militants belonging to another community, officials said on Friday.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
The move comes after the Manipur high court had directed the state government to operationalise mobile towers, on a trial basis, in all those district headquarters which have not been affected by the ethnic clashes.
In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said.
The surrendered weapons included self-loading rifles, carbine, AK and INSAS rifles, light machine guns, pistols, M16 rifles, smoke gun/tear gas, sten gun and grenade launcher.
'Who is the aggressor and who is the victim is not clear, each blames the other.'
Singh also attributed the current crisis to the 'failure' of the previous government in guarding the state's borders.
Hours before a planned mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, the state's high court on Thursday ordered that status quo be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district, while ITLF, an apex tribal body also said it was postponing burial service plans following requests from the Union home minister.
The governor was on her way to visit two relief camps at ECA Church Songgel and ECA Church Tuibong in the district where hundreds of Kukis have taken refuge since the ethnic strife broke out in the state on May 3, 2023, the police added.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, accompanied by four of his cabinet ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party state president Sarada Devi, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Sunday, state minister and government spokesperson Sapam Ranjan Singh told PTI.
The CBI has so far registered eight cases which include two related to alleged sexual assault on women in Manipur.
Security presence which has been bolstered by flying in more army troops and rapid action force and central police forces was clearly visible at all major areas and roads.
All marketplaces in the town were deserted and attendance in government and private offices was nil. Schools and colleges also remained shut, officials said.
The Army and Assam Rifles were requisitioned in the night, and along with the state police, the forces arrested the violence by the morning, the spokesperson said.
The ATRs have been sought on a range of matters within four weeks, the officials said.
'Replacement of the CM with a more acceptable face may be a good start towards resolving Manipur's problem.'
The United States is 'shocked and horrified' by the video of an extreme attack on two women in Manipur and supports the Indian government's efforts to seek justice for them, a senior Biden administration official has said.
The agency filed the charge sheet against six people and a report against one child in conflict with the law before a special CBI court in Guwahati, nearly three months Manipur Police made arrests in the case.
More than a month before the horrific video of two women being assaulted publicly in Manipur went viral, activists had informed the National Commission for Women about not only this case but other brutal instances of rape as well, besides incidents of kidnapping, lynching, immolation and even murder in the strife-torn state.
The contentious paragraph from last year's verdict, instructing the state to expedite consideration of Meitei community inclusion, was deemed for deletion.
The Army, Assam Rifles, CAPFs and local police have been deployed in vulnerable places.
Singh said that he would resign if the government measures against the use of drugs and its campaigns against the influx of unauthorised immigrants to contain the situation in the state were found to be unconstitutional.
The lawlessness because of the fake picture spread like jungle fire and was one of the reasons for the state government to shut down the Internet on May 3, the officials said.
'Hygiene is very bad, there is no medicine and there is no electricity.' 'I fear that there will be a breakout of some disease.'
Haokip advocated giving "political and administrative recognition to the ethnic separation" in the state, upping the ante from earlier vaguely explained demands for a "separate administration" for Kuki areas made by fellow Kuki community leaders.
'The Centre prevaricates on the question of effecting a change of state-level leadership or on the imposition of President's rule in the state.'
Imad Nazir, a spirited, specially-abled nine year old from Kulgam district, is making waves with his ability to play India's favourite sport.
The National Investigation Agency Saturday arrested a second accused linked to the case of a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh-based leadership of terror outfits to wage war against India by exploiting the current ethnic strife in Manipur, an official said.
Thousands of agitators took part in the rally, during which violence between tribals and non-tribals was reported in Torbung area, a senior police officer said.
A bomb went off at the Sangai festival in Imphal, Manipur, on Wednesday morning, just days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the troubled state. One person was reportedly killed in the blast. Dr Singh is scheduled to visit the state, which just lifted a 100-day blockade, on December 3.
Another case of sexual assault has come to light in Manipur after a 37-year-old married woman from Churachandpur district alleged she was gang-raped by a group of men while fleeing her burning house on May 3, the day on which the ethnic strife began in the northeastern state, police said.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu shelled out Rs 60,000 from his own pocket for the evacuation of five local students stuck in violence-hit Manipur, an official spokesperson of the government said on Monday.
The Manipur government on Tuesday lifted the suspension on broadband internet conditionally in a 'liberalised manner', nearly three months after it was banned due to the ethnic violence in the state.
'The collective shame and anger needs to be channelled now in a unified voice for just one thing -- swift justice.'
The Central Bureau of Investigation has formed a 10-member special investigation team (SIT) under a DIG-rank officer to probe six cases related to the Manipur violence referred to it by the state government, officials said on Friday.
In a statement, the UNAU Tribal Women's Forum, Delhi-NCR, said the mothers of the Kuki-Hmar-Zomi community of Manipur, represented by the group, are "deeply hurt and appalled" by the remarks made by the solicitor general in the Supreme Court on August 1.
Stating that 35 weapons of different types, ammunition and warlike stores were recovered on the second day of joint combing operations on Thursday in the hills and valley sector, the official said that the security forces are adopting confidence building measure and a people centric approach to alleviate the hardships of the people, affected by the month-long ethnic strife in the northeastern state.
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