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.
A lesson we have not learnt from China is the urgent need to knit the vast country together to keep it from falling apart at the seams. While there is considerable dent in poverty, sadly, the North East remains as distant today as it always was, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
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.
Hindu outfits Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are staging protests across the national capital against the Haryana violence.
The government and opposition parties on Monday reached an agreement to break the impasse in Parliament with dates announced for discussions on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
All the four accused, who were allegedly part of a mob that disrobed and paraded two women in Manipur on May 4, were remanded to 11-day police custody on Friday, the police 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 women's rally outside the Imphal residence of Union minister R K Ranjan Singh turned ugly when the protestors threw stones at it demanding that he speak in Parliament about the situation in the ethnic strife-affected state.
Ramesh stressed that the prime minister should participate in the debate on Manipur.
An injured eight-year-old boy was killed along with his mother and another relative when an ambulance with the three on board was waylaid by a mob and set ablaze in Manipur's West Imphal district, officials said.
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 mob tried to storm the camp of 3rd IRB batallion in the Khangabok area to loot arms and ammunition, they said.
Gangmei in his appeal said the HAC "was a necessary and proper party and the proceedings before the high court were vitiated on account of not making the HAC a party".
Suddenly, a mob gathered near the locality, pelting stones and shouting slogans asking residents to leave. Manipur had been tense throughout the day with demonstrations and protests in Churachandpur and Imphal, some of which had turned violent.
A vacation bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Neela Gokhale heard a plea filed by Dhanashree Jagatap seeking permission to reappear for the exam.
Six bills, including the one to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid protests by opposition members over the violence in Manipur.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
The groups have sought time to decide the modalities and requested for cessation of operations against them.
'Why potentially anybody, not only Muslims and Dalits, can be subjected to custodial death?'
Protests erupted in Imphal, Manipur, on Monday, as a group led by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) locked government offices in protest of the recent killing of three women and three children in Jiribam. The Manipur government also extended the suspension of internet services for two more days, till Wednesday, in seven districts of the state. The protests come amidst a fresh wave of unrest following the disappearance of six people from a displaced persons camp in Jiribam and the subsequent discovery of multiple bodies.
Refuting the opposition's claim that Manipur 'is burning', a senior government functionary said on Thursday that no killing has happened in the state since July 18 and asserted that peace and normalcy will be restored soon through ongoing talks with the two warring communities -- Meiteis and Kukis.
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.
They have been interrogated for their actual motive behind the security breach, the sources added.
"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.
However, official sources said the Assam Rifles -- a border guarding force -- primary mandate or task is not drug law enforcement.
The over half-an-hour meeting between the opposition parties and the government, however, remained inconclusive.
The Bharat Nyay Yatra will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking.
Though attendance in most institutes was extremely low on the first day, students, parents and guardians welcomed the state government's decision to restart classes.
Unidentified "rioters" opened "unprovoked" fire at village Haraothel in Kangpokpi district of Manipur on Thursday morning, leading to tension in the area even as the army quoted "unconfirmed reports" to indicate some casualties.
Drones are a new technology added recently to the weapons used in the violence between the two large ethnic groups -- Meitei and Kuki -- in the northeastern state, which left over 200 people dead since May last year.
The Congress on Wednesday came out in defence of Rahul Gandhi saying he never disrespects women and the Bharatiya Janata Party is indulging in an 'indecent' act of accusing him of 'misconduct' as it does not want a debate on Manipur violence.
The Chief Minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, has received "key evidence" related to the disappearance of a 56-year-old man who has been missing for 10 days. The evidence suggests the man disappeared from an army camp in Kangpokpi district. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) formed to find the missing man, Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, presented the evidence to the CM. Despite the evidence, the JAC remains dissatisfied with the ongoing search efforts and accuses the security forces of reluctance to cooperate. The Indian Army has deployed over 2,000 personnel in the search operation, which is taking place in a military camp surrounded by hills where the Kuki people live. The disappearance comes amid ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, which began in May 2023.
Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi Monday said there is still a 'degree' of standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh and both sides need to sit down and firm up a broader understanding on how to calm down the situation.
'Why is a powerful person called Amit Shah who camped in Manipur for three days not able to maintain law and order in the state?'
Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Friday amid an uproar in the House over the issue of law and order situation in Rajasthan.
The move could virtually put an end to the Free Movement Regime prevalent along the porous border.
An electorate of 17,40,576, including 8,82,236 woman voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives from among 279 candidates in the 10th assembly polls.
Sunil Ambekar, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh, said caste and caste-relations were a "very sensitive issue" for the Hindu society and it is an important issue "for our national unity and integrity".
Opposition alliance INDIA on Thursday boycotted a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi not making a statement on Manipur violence in Parliament, a senior leader said.
The FMR allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other's territory without any documents.
