More violence in Jiribam district of Manipur; police post, forest office burnt down

Manipur, JUN 9: The miscreants burned down a police outpost, a forest beat office and a forest range office in ethnic violence-hit Manipur’s Jiribam district in the wee hours of Saturday.

About a dozen houses were also torched in four to five villages. Officials said the houses belonged to Meiteis.

Trouble broke out in the district on Thursday evening after the killing of one Soibam Saratkumar Singh (59), a Meitei, by the miscreants. When news of his killing spread, the locals vented their ire by resorting to arson and staging a protest in front of the Jiribam police station.

The unrest prompted the authorities to clamp curfew in the district for an indefinite period. Meanwhile, more than 200 people were lodged at a temporary shelter in Jiribam town. The persons are from villages where the incidents of arson occurred as well as neighbouring villages.

District Magistrate Krishna Kumar told this newspaper they were being provided with food, mattress and medical facilities by the administration. He said they would return to their villages once the situation normalised.

“The situation is under control but unpredictable. Security forces are being deployed to the affected areas,” Kumar said. According to reports, reinforcements are being sent to the district from the state capital Imphal. Newly-elected Inner Manipur MP, Angomcha Bimol Akoijam told the media that he had urged the state government to take immediate measures to protect the lives and properties of the residents in Jiribam. He said he had also urged the district administration to revamp the security arrangements.

In a statement, the Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Committee said the “burning of houses in the “newly established village of Lamdai Khunou by angry mobs is a direct response” to the “unprovoked attacks and burning of numerous Hmar-Kuki-Zomi tribal houses”.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, a Meitei group, said the violence appeared to be an “orchestrated and provocative action by immigrant Kuki groups, aiming to further their demand for a separate administration through terror tactics”. Jiribam, located on Manipur’s westernmost boundary adjoining Assam’s Cachar district, has a mixed population of Meiteis, Kuki-Zo tribals and other tribal and non-tribal communities.

-PTI