Imphal/Kochi- Manipur saw a spurt in violence as riotous mobs combatted Rapid Action Force, set up flaming roadblocks and torched properties in the heart of Imphal town on Friday, officials said.
Among others, a house belonging to Union Minister RK Ranjan Singh was attacked and attempts were made to burn it down. A warehouse near the royal palace belonging to a retired tribal IAS officer was burnt down completely.
Security guards and firefighters managed to control arson attempts by the mob and save the house of the minister of state for external affairs here from being gutted on Thursday night.
A mob clashed with RAF personnel on Friday evening after it had set the warehouse afire. The group also burnt tyres, logs and waste in the middle of streets in Wangkhei, Porompat and Thangapat areas affecting the flow of traffic in Manipur’s capital town, officials said.
The RAF fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd late in the evening. No casualties have been reported as yet.
Sound of firing could be heard in Imphal East district till the early hours of Friday as security forces fired numerous rounds of tear gas shells and mock bombs to disperse angry locals protesting the killing of nine civilians on Wednesday.
The development comes after the burning of two houses, and clashes between RAF and a mob in the heart of Imphal town on Thursday afternoon.
Reacting to the developments, Union minister RK Ranjan Singh told PTI Video: “I am trying to bring peace and stop violence since May 3 (when ethnic clashes began in the state) … this is all a misunderstanding between two communities. The government has set up a peace committee, the process is on. Civil society leaders are sitting together.” The minister, who is currently in Kochi to attend a party event cancelled all programmes in Kerala to return home.
“That (the house) is (from) my own hard-earned money. I am not corrupt. No one is corrupt in this regime. If this was something religious, then I am a Hindu. The attackers were Hindus. So, this is not religious. This is a mob,” he said.
Singh said the government will talk to all communities and find a way out.
Condemning the killing of nine people in the Khamenlok area of Manipur, Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said search and combing operations are on by security forces to nab the culprits.
Singh also asserted that his government will safeguard the unity and integrity of the state and will not do anything which is against the interest of the people of Manipur.
“Search and combing operations have been conducted at different places including Kurangpat and Yaingangpokpi by a team consisting of paramilitary forces and Manipur Police to nab the culprits and stringent actions would be taken against those involved in such heinous crime,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The CM said search operations had been conducted in 41 villages of hill areas and 39 villages in adjoining valley areas.
At least nine people were killed and 10 injured when suspected miscreants attacked a village in the Khamenlok area of the state in the early hours of Wednesday.
Meanwhile, all-out efforts have been made by the Centre to bring back normalcy in Manipur through a number of initiatives that include enhanced area domination in fringe areas and higher reaches by security forces, mobilisation of additional troops and close monitoring by senior officials, sources said in New Delhi on Friday.
The Union home ministry has also rushed Director General of CRPF S L Thaosen to Manipur to assess the situation and for better utilisation and coordination of central forces, the sources privy to the development said.
More than 100 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki community people in Manipur that broke out a month ago.
The state has imposed a curfew on 11 districts and banned the internet in a bid to stop the spread of rumours in the state.
Clashes first broke out on May 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals – Nagas and Kukis – constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.
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