A 25-year-old Meitei man, Athouba Ningthouja, was shot dead by the state police during protests in Manipur’s Jiribam district on Sunday night, a security force member stationed in the area confirmed to Scroll.
The firing took place when a mob was vandalising property in the Babupara area to protest the killings of a group of six Meitei women and children who had been abducted allegedly by Kuki militants on November 11, PTI reported.
The mob ransacked the offices of the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as a house belonging to Jiribam’s Independent MLA, PTI reported quoting unidentified officials.
“They brought furniture, paper and other things out of the properties and made a bonfire out of them in front of the buildings,” an official said.
A curfew was imposed in Imphal West district on Saturday in response to protests that erupted after the bodies of a woman and two children, including a two-year-old boy, were found floating on the Barak River at Lakhipur in Assam a day prior.
They belonged to three of the six Meitei persons who had been missing from Jiribam since November 11.
The body of another woman and child were recovered on Sunday, while that of the sixth missing person was found in floating the Barak river on Monday. The body has been sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital, a family member of the victim told Scroll.
The body of a 27-year-old Kuki man was also recovered in Jiribam on Saturday. He had his hands tied and a gunshot wound to the head, reported The Hindu.
On Monday, markets and businesses – except pharmacies – were closed in Imphal West and public transport was suspended, though some private vehicles were seen on the roads, reported PTI.
Security forces have ramped up patrolling in Imphal and increased deployments around key locations, including residences of legislators and major roads leading to the Secretariat, the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters and Raj Bhavan.
On Sunday, the National People’s Party withdrew its support for the BJP-led government of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
The party expressed its “deep concern” about the law and order situation in Manipur.
There has been an uptick in violence in Manipur in the past ten days, with with at least 22 persons having been killed since November 7. At least 255 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the clashes broke out between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo-Hmars in May 2023.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday reviewed the security situation in the state for the second consecutive day, PTI reported, adding that the Centre plans to deploy 5,000 paramilitary troops to assist the “volatile situation”.
“The Centre has decided to send an additional 50 CAPF [Central Armed Police Forces] companies comprising more than 5,000 personnel to Manipur in view of the ‘challenging’ security and law and order situation in the northeastern state,” the report quoted an unidentified official as saying. “While 35 units will be drawn from the CRPF, the rest will be from the Border Security Force.”
After the violence in Jiribam last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs deployed 20 additional Central Armed Police Forces companies to the state on November 12.
The National Investigation Agency has taken over three cases relating to the fresh violence. They were originally filed by the Manipur police, reported PTI.
The cases concern the murder of a woman in Jiribram by armed militants, an attack on a Central Reserve Police Force post located at Jakuradhor Karong and Borobekra police stations, and the burning of houses and the killing of a civilian at Borobekra in Jiribam.
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