Fresh attacks, arson as Manipur remains tense | Latest News India

It was a tense Sunday Manipur More rioting and arson has been reported, including the targeting of homes of several legislators and demonstrations despite the curfew, further exacerbating ethnic conflict, even as the bodies of two victims from a family that lost six members in attacks by militants were found with bloody wounds.

The rapidly deteriorating situation led Union home minister Amit Shah to cancel his election. Maharashtra election rallies and rush back to Delhi for urgent meetings with security officials. Shah will chair a detailed review meeting in North Block on Monday as the Center struggles to contain the violence. The government also sent CRPF director general Anish Dayal Singh to Manipur.

The fluctuations have also shaken political alignments with the National People’s Party (NPP), which has seven MLAs in the 60-member assembly, with the BJP-led government in Manipur withdrawing its support on Sunday. N Biren Singh The exemption “completely failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy” in the northeastern state.

While the NPP’s move will not threaten the government as it has a majority in the assembly, the worsening crisis after the ruling MLA anonymously told HT that “there are two MLAs left for the national election” has threatened to trigger dissent within the BJP. “The capital will discuss the crisis on Sunday evening” and a total of 19 people are considering resigning. “There is no point in continuing to remain a legislator in this situation,” a legislator told HT on condition of anonymity.

Reacting to the escalating crisis, former Manipur CM and senior Congress leader O Ibobi Singh on Sunday blamed the state and central governments for the worsening situation.

Ibobi, at a press conference at his residence, said: “The ongoing turmoil in the state is a direct result of the failure of government at both the state and central levels. “If governments were competent, the situation would not have reached this stage.”

On calls for Biren Singh’s resignation and implementation of President’s Rule, Ibobi said: “Demands for Biren Singh’s resignation are an internal matter of the BJP. As for President’s Rule, the people of Manipur do not support it. “This crisis should be solved by constitutional means, not by the central government.”

The most important triggers for this are the fact that the bodies of a 65-year-old woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old grandchild were found floating in the Barak river in Assam’s Cachar district on Sunday, about 30 kilometers from where the violence broke out. In Jiribam. They were identified as members of the six-member Meitei family who were kidnapped during a festival celebration on November 11.

“As of now, five members of our family, including my wife and daughter, have been found dead and I have identified their bodies. My 25-year-old sister-in-law Laisram Heitombi Devi is still missing and we fear that she too has been killed,” said Uttam Singh of Jiribam and his nephew Laisram Chingkheiganba Singh, who stated that the bodies belonged to his mother-in-law Yurembam Rani Devi.

The other three bodies found earlier belonged to Singh’s wife Telem Thoibi Debi (31), daughter Telem Thajmanbi Devi (8) and another nephew Laisram Langamba Singh (8 months). All the bodies were taken to Silchar Medical College and Hospital for autopsy.

Singh, who works in a construction site in Meghalaya, talked about his last meeting with his family. “My wife called me around 11.30 on November 11, but I could not answer. When I called again around 16:00, his phone was off. I wish I had joined the call. He must have called me when the house was attacked. “Neighbors said that the militants came with six cars and kidnapped them with these vehicles,” he said.

Angry mobs on Sunday ransacked the offices of both the Congress and the BJP in Jiribam district, where an unidentified body was found in the early hours of Sunday. In Imphal Valley, protesters ransacked a building belonging to Independent legislator Ashab Uddin.

These incidents follow violence on Saturday, when angry mobs set fire to the houses of three BJP MPs, including a senior minister and a Congress MLA, in the Imphal Valley. Security forces also foiled attempts to attack the ancestral residence of chief minister N Biren Singh.

“The situation is relatively calm today but unpredictable,” a senior state police official told Reuters, adding that 23 people were arrested for attacking lawmakers’ homes.

An eyewitness who described one such attack detailed how violence unfolded at the residence of Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar, where nearly 500 internally displaced people had been sheltered for over 17 months. “They wanted to meet the MLA. After some deliberation, some members wearing combat uniforms threw tear gas bombs around 21:00. Sorokhaibam Ongbi Bishwarani, a resident of the area, said that unidentified attackers wearing face masks also fired into the air.

In response to the escalating violence, authorities deployed around 300 army and Assam Rifles personnel in key areas of Imphal Valley and Thoubal. “Following the resurgence of unrest, the Security Forces received a request from the state police department for deployment of troops in various parts of Imphal Valley to help maintain law and order and restore peace,” an official said.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in the Imphal valley and suspended internet services in seven districts – Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Kangkokpi and Churchandpur – covering strongholds of both Meitei and tribal communities.

The latest wave of violence began on November 8 in Jiribam district after a 31-year-old Kuki woman was allegedly shot, raped and set on fire by suspected members of the radical Meitei organization Arambai Tenggol. Security forces later killed 10 suspected Kuki militants. He allegedly attacked a CRPF post.

Hundreds of people protested in Churachandpur on Friday demanding justice for 10 tribal men killed in the Jiribam gunfight, claiming that they were village volunteers and not militants. Their bodies were airlifted from Silchar to Churachandpur on Saturday after autopsies.

The Center has sent 20 additional paramilitary troops (approximately 2,500 personnel) to Manipur. The government also reintroduced the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in areas under six police stations in five districts, but the state government has called for the law to be withdrawn.

The ethnic conflict has effectively divided Manipur into two distinct regions, the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley and the Kuki-dominated hills, separated by buffer zones monitored by security forces. But militants from both communities often use hills and forest areas to launch attacks across regions; In response, security forces are creating buffer zones and setting up camps on highways.