Tezpur: A mob went on a rampage and ransacked at least two security posts in Manipur's Bishnupur district on Thursday. The unruly crowd looted arms and ammunition, including automatic guns. A police officer was killed in Imphal after being hit by a sniper in his head. The assailants snatched more than 300 weapons from the 2nd MR and 7th MR battalions as the Army and the RAF resorted to firing and lobbing tear gas shells to quell the mob.
Sources in the Manipur police said that a group of men and women ransacked the Keirenphabi police outpost and Thangalawai police outpost. The rampaging crowd looted the weapons of the second Battalion of Manipur Armed Police. The mob also attempted to seize arms and ammunition from Heingang and Singjamei police stations. But, the security forces thwarted their bid. An exchange of fire between armed assailants and security forces also took place in Koutruk, Haraothel and Senjam Chirang areas. Two people, including one security personnel, were injured in the firing.
A Manipur policeman was killed after being shot in the head by a sniper. A village volunteer also sustained injuries when suspected militants opened fire in Koutruk and Senjam Chirang from the nearby hill ranges in Imphal West. Sources in the government said that around 20 people were injured when the Army and Rapid Action Force (RAF) lobbed tear gas shells to quell the rampaging crowd. Earlier, the administration in Imphal East and Imphal West districts had ordered relaxation in the evening curfew, which was once again reimposed. Following the fresh imposition of the curfew, the mass burial of the Kuki-Jomi people killed in the ethnic violence in Manipur was put on hold.
Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), an apex tribal body, also shelved the plan of a mass burial ceremony of 35 people at the site of Hawlai Khopi village in Churachandpur district bordering Bishnupur following the High Court order stating that proper conditions should be maintained at the proposed burial site in the Churachandpur district.
