The Manipur government has suspended internet services in five valley districts following a bomb attack that killed two children and injured their mother in Bishnupur district. The incident triggered protests, leading to the suspension of internet services to prevent the spread of misinformation.
Kuki organizations are demanding justice after a Kuki woman from Manipur died from an illness allegedly linked to the trauma she suffered after being gang-raped in 2023. They allege government inaction and demand an independent probe.
'You cannot 'clear' your way to peace.' 'You need intelligence, calibrated force, impartial law enforcement, political neutrality, humanitarian returns and a sustained reconciliation plan.'
Violent protests over the death of two youths in Manipur continued till the early hours of Thursday with a mob vandalising the deputy commissioner's office in Imphal West and torching two four-wheelers, officials said.
A sessions court in Manipur's Churachandpur has been designated as a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court for the trial of cases related to ethnic violence being investigated by the NIA.
Parents of both the murdered youths, viral pictures of whose bodies caused widespread protests in Imphal valley for two days, on Thursday pleaded with authorities to locate the remains of their children so that the last rights of the boy and the girl can be conducted 'with the dignity they deserve'.
The incident took place on September 19 at around 5:50 pm when a vehicle-based column of troops of 33 Assam Rifles was moving from its Patsoi Company Operating Base to Nambol Company Operating Base.
Sub-divisional police officer Chingtham Anand, a resident of Imphal's Haobam Marak locality, was killed in a sniper attack while he was on duty overseeing the cleaning of the grounds of Eastern Shine School for construction of a helipad jointly by the police and BSF, officials said.
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.
Altogether 45 students were injured in Manipur's Imphal Valley on Tuesday as the police fired tear gas shells and baton-charged a mob protesting against the killing of two youths who were allegedly kidnapped in July, officials said.
Former India spinner and Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh has demanded "capital punishment" for all those who were involved in the heinous crime of parading two Manipuri women naked and allegedly gang-raping them.
In a separate incident, a tribal woman had lodged a complaint at Saikul police station, stating that her 21-year-old daughter and her 24-year-old friend were allegedly raped by a mob at their rented house near Konung Mamang before brutally murdering them on May 4.
'Everyone's voice must be heard. We will be talking to both Kukis and Meiteis'
The CBI has so far registered eight cases which include two related to alleged sexual assault on women in Manipur.
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.
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.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that mobile internet services, which were suspended after ethnic violence erupted in the northeastern state on May 3, will be restored from Saturday.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, led by the agency's Special Director Ajay Bhatnagar, will reach Imphal in a special flight on Wednesday to investigate the 'kidnapping and killing' of two students who went missing in the northeastern state on July 6, sources said.
According to the latest data, the CBI has so far registered 27 cases handed over to it by the state police -- 19 cases of crime against women, three related to an armoury loot by a mob, two of murder and one each of rioting and murder, kidnapping and general criminal conspiracy, sources aware of the developments said.
The four, including the wife of the main accused, were taken 'outside the state' by a special flight, Singh said.
A man who was part of the mob that paraded naked two tribal women in Kangpokpi district of Manipur and was seen dragging one of them was among four persons arrested on Thursday as the incident of May 4 drew widespread condemnation.
'In a complex situation a PM coming was not necessary'
Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after the May 4 video surfaced on Wednesday showing two women from one of the warring communities being paraded naked by a group of men from the other side.
'It is in the interest of China and Pakistan to give a bad name to the Indian Army and remove AFSPA 'completely' from the north east.' 'Hopefully, better sense will prevail and the ground realities of the army countering insurgency in the north east acknowledged,' asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
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.
While Singh comes from the Meiti community, he has continued to appeal to both sides to stay away from violence and restore peace in the state.
'How can such barbarity, bestiality, happen in modern India?'
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
