'These are just to deflect from the leaked audio tapes of the chief minister which prove his culpability in the ethnic violence against the Kukis that has gripped the state for more than 17 months.'
Attempts to resume Manipur State Transport (MST) services on Saturday suffered a setback after buses heading from capital Imphal to the hill districts could not go beyond Imphal valley.
The militants attacked an India Reserve Battalion camp at Naranseina in the Moirang police station area, they said.
Hours before the clashes, a planned mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence was stalled after the state's High Court on Thursday morning ordered status quo to be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district.
A day after curfew was clamped in all the five valley districts of Manipur, authorities announced curfew relaxation timing to facilitate the general public to purchase essential items including medicines and food.
Modi also said the BJP has "not just today but never" acted against minorities.
Curfew was imposed on Thursday after protesters stormed police stations demanding the release of five youths who had earlier been arrested for carrying sophisticated weapons and wearing camouflage uniforms similar to army fatigues.
Singh said concerned with increasing deforestation and setting up of new villages by illegal immigrants, a Cabinet sub-committee was formed in February 2023 after a cabinet meeting attended by two Kuki ministers Letpao Haokip and Nemcha Kipgen.
One person was killed and another injured in heavy firing between two groups at Narainsena in Bishnupur district on Tuesday morning, police said.
Meira Paibis, a collective of Meitei women, on Friday staged sit-in demonstrations across five districts of Imphal Valley in protest against the alleged gang rape of a 37-year-old woman in Churachandpur on May 3, when the ongoing ethnic violence started.
The Manipur government relaxed the curfew in Imphal East and West districts for seven hours from 5 am on Friday to facilitate common people to purchase essential items, officials said.
Following the violence, the authorities clamped curfew for 24 hours in the area and reduced the curfew relaxation hours in several other districts.
They staged sit-in demonstrations in various localities blocking roads, demanding the removal of Assam Rifles from violence-hit areas and accusing the paramilitary force of "brutality during recent agitations".
The incident occurred at Ningthoukhong Kha Khunou and the victims included a man and his 60-year-old father.
The state government, however, relaxed the curfew in Imphal East and West districts for seven hours from 5 am to facilitate common people to purchase essential items, officials said.
Bose, who was earlier a Lok Sabha MP, pointed out in an interview to PTI that members of all the three communities had joined Netaji's INA in 1944 and fought shoulder to shoulder in the battlefields of Bishnupur and Ukhrul districts in an advance into India.
It's obvious to all that the Congress is overestimating its success and the BJP is underestimating the people's message delivered through the ballot box, notes Sheela Bhatt.
'There will not be very heavy rain.' 'Moderate showers will be there and winds will be, say, somewhere between 20 and 40 km/hr, gusting to 35 km/hr.'
Gunmen, who are yet to be identified, arrived in camouflage dresses in the Lilong Chingjao area, and opened fire targeting locals, they said.
The withdrawal of Assam Rifles comes at a time when several groups of women in valley districts launched a demonstration on Monday, demanding the removal of the paramilitary force from the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state.
The three were gunned down while they were sleeping and later slashed with swords at Kwakta in the district, the police said on Saturday morning, adding that the assailants came from Churachandpur.
At least eight persons have been killed and 18 injured, including two security personnel, in Manipur's Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts following continuous gunbattle between Kukis and Meiteis over the last 72 hours, officials said on Thursday.
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A village volunteer was killed in a gunfight between two warring communities in Manipur's Kangpokpi district, officials said on Thursday.
The Manipur police said all personnel of the force from top to bottom are united and any attack on anyone and use of social media to target any officer or unit will be taken seriously and stringent action will be taken.
Meet Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Ningthoujam Raghu Singh, who was one of the bright sparks responsible for sending Chandrayaan-3 to the moon.
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.
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
The mob also tried to snatch weapons from the police, forcing them to fire at the crowd. No casualty was reported so far, the sources said.
The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in 40 years.
An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19.
The agency filed the charge sheets in the interconnected cases before a designated special court in Kamrup, giving a sequence of events before they went missing.
Over 93 per cent of these children have been admitted to the nearest school, Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
The house of Manipur PWD Minister Konthoujam Govindas in Bishnupur district was vandalised on Wednesday by a group of people claiming that the government in the strife-torn state is not doing enough to protect locals from militants belonging to another community, officials said.
Besides the national capital, polling will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
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.
"I fear I won't perform well in the class 10 board examination next year, which might affect my dreams of enrolling in a good school in Imphal," Karam said.
'I have been asking whether the chief minister (N Biren Singh) is in charge of the situation in Manipur.' 'Law and order is a state subject and chief minister is a Constitutional authority. Why did he follow the diktat, if at all there is a diktat from the Union government?'
Eight firearms and 112 rounds of ammunition were recovered from different districts of violence-hit Manipur during search operations by security forces, police said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's convoy was on Thursday stopped by the Manipur police at Bishnupur, about 20 kilometres from Imphal, officials said.
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