Category: MANIPUR

• IMPHAL

Hectic preparations are underway ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's much-expected visit to Manipur and Tripura on Monday to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

Despite the Election Commission’s all-out efforts to increase voting turnout in the 18th Lok Sabha polls, several thousand voters, mostly tribals, would miss to cast their vote in Manipur as they took shelter in neighbouring Mizoram and other states after the violence broke out in Manipur.

A multi-tier security arrangement has been put in place along the 5437-km long international borders with eight northeastern states to foil any cross-border illegal activities before and during the Lok Sabha elections.

Election officials both in Manipur and Mizoram separately said that no arrangements have been made so far to facilitate the voters from among the 10,000 refugees, now sheltered in different districts of Mizoram.

A defence spokesman said that Naib Subedar Konsam Kheda Singh, a resident of Charangpat Mamang Leikai in Thoubal district, was abducted while on leave from his residence on Friday morning.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said on Monday that out of the 6,746 illegal Myanmar immigrants detected in Manipur since the ongoing ethnic conflict unfolded in the state on May 3 last year, 259 were sent back to their country till February 27 after recording their biometrics details.

A 24-year-old student was killed while another student was seriously injured in a blast near the DM University complex in Imphal late on Friday night, the police said on Saturday.

The Manipur High Court’s order modifying its March 27, 2023 order in part in in connection with the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list has evoked mixed reactions from various quarters in the northeastern state.

Apart from the official report of a BSF jawan being injured in the onslaught, locals claimed that five elderly persons, including four women, died due to heart attacks since February 14.

Two persons were killed and over 40 others were injured in Churachandpur after security forces fired at a mob that stormed a government compound, which houses the offices of the SP and DC late on Thursday night.

Sources said a large number of village volunteers attempted to barge into the armoury of MPTC at Pangei to loot firearms on Tuesday night.

One person died while four others, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), sustained injuries in a gunfight between two armed groups in Manipur’s Imphal East district on Tuesday, the police said.

Champu Khangpok -- the floating village on Manipur’s internationally famed Loktak Lake -- and classified as a wetland of international significance by the Ramsar Convention has always taken a center stage in the Manipuri society.

In fresh incidents of violence, two village volunteers were killed and five others injured after their makeshift camp was attacked in the bordering areas of Kangpokpi and Imphal West district in Manipur on Tuesday, the police said.

One village volunteer was killed while four others were injured during a gunfight between two armed groups in Manipur on Saturday, the police said.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Sunday expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which the Central forces have been dealing with the current crisis in the northeastern state impacted by ethnic violence that first broke out on May 3 last year.

Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi led 10-years governance as “anyay kaal” (period of injustice), the Congress on Sunday launched the 66-day long Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur’s Thoubal district.

Three of northeast India's most important ecosystems - Rudrasagar Lake in Tripura, Deepor Beel in Assam and Loktak Lake in Manipur are categorised as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

After Mizoram and Manipur, Assam, Tripura and other northeastern states are also facing a serious threat of drugs, mostly smuggled from Myanmar and traded to Bangladesh, different states of India and other countries.

Police officials in Imphal said that the suspected Kuki militants targeted the vehicles carrying police commandos and Border Security Personnel as they were en route the border town Moreh close to Myanmar injuring five police commandos and a BSF rifleman.

A civilian volunteer was killed in a gunfight with unidentified persons in Manipur's Imphal West district while unidentified militants and police commandos exchanged heavy gunfire in Moreh in which a police commando was injured, an official said on Saturday.

Celebrations were subdued in ethnic violence-devastated Manipur, but Christmas was celebrated with cheer, joy, and festivities in other northeastern states, like Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.

The move by the government to reintroduce inter-district travel garnered widespread appreciation, particularly from non-tribal and neutral tribal natives who saw this initiative as a means of re-establishing crucial connections between the districts in turmoil.

The 30th Imphal Book Fair, which was supposed to conclude on Thursday, was extended by another three days on public demand, indicating the resilience in the face of adversity due to the prevailing situation.

The drug menace has replaced militancy as the prime threat in the northeastern states owing to the region’s close proximity to Myanmar, which according to the Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023, is the world’s biggest opium producer.