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 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 CBI has so far registered eight cases which include two related to alleged sexual assault on women in Manipur.
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.
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.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee will not be part of the virtual meeting on Saturday morning as she is preoccupied with prior engagements, they said.
Singh said India has intensified patrolling of the seas after the recent attacks on merchant navy ships.
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.
'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 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.
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.
'Replacement of the CM with a more acceptable face may be a good start towards resolving Manipur's problem.'
The ATRs have been sought on a range of matters within four weeks, the officials 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.
A powerful bomb exploded a few minutes before the celebrations of Independence Day commenced on Thursday in Manipur but no casualty was reported.
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.
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.
All marketplaces in the town were deserted and attendance in government and private offices was nil. Schools and colleges also remained shut, officials said.
"Keeping in view the sensitivity of the use of kinetic force against a large irate mob and envisaged casualties due to such action, the officer on the ground made a considerate decision to hand over all 12 cadres to the local leader. Own columns lifted the cordon and left the area with weapons and war-like stores, recovered from insurgents," it read.
The present happenings in Manipur are the wages of continued neglect, and not so benign at that, of a vital region and its people. Had we lavished on the North East even a fraction of the care and resources we do on Kashmir, things would not have come to this pass, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Better late than never! That's the thought on Manipuris minds as they gear up to host their first ever international tournament from Wednesday.
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.
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.
'The collective shame and anger needs to be channelled now in a unified voice for just one thing -- swift justice.'
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.
Singh also attributed the current crisis to the 'failure' of the previous government in guarding the state's borders.
In a memorandum submitted to Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey, the 21 opposition MPs who signed the document demanded urgent rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected people to bring peace and harmony to the state.
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.
'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.'
Manipur Police have so far arrested five persons in connection with the May 4 parading of two tribal women in Kangpokpi district of the state, officials said on Saturday.
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.
The Zomi-Kuki organisation also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for a permanent solution to the ongoing ethnic strife
Addressing the Manipur assembly during the commencement of the budget session, she said that 198 companies of central armed police forces and 140 army columns have been deployed along with state forces to maintain law and order.
The video, which drew widespread condemnation, shows the men constantly molesting the two helpless women, who cry and plead with their captors to spare them the horror.
Armed vigilante groups have been taking the law into their own hands in parts of Manipur, in the wake of ethnic rioting earlier, thus complicating the peace process. At times, militant groups have joined in the fray, creating an even more volatile cocktail of ethnic tension.
Often during the day or night, there is intermittent firing where these groups are taking shots at these quadcopters, available freely in the market, the officials said.
This comes after 10 Kuki MLAs, cutting across party affiliations, had expressed their inability to attend the assembly session as violence in the northeastern state continued.
Bimola Thounaojam, the mother of an 18-year-old youth, has been trying frantically trying to work out how to get her son admitted to a college outside Manipur without having to go through the usual net-based admission procedure.
India enter round of 16 in men's football
