Category: north-east

Defence sources said that armed miscreants resorted to unprovoked firing from Kanto Sabal towards the Chingmang village in Imphal West district during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, injuring a soldier.

According to a CBI officer, searches were conducted at 25 locations, including the accused's offices and residences across Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana, after the FIR was filed recently.

Mobs in Manipur tried to vandalise state BJP President Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi's residence and torched the head office of Thongju Assembly constituency from where Power and Forest Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh was elected, police said on Saturday.

Gen Malik (retd), refferring to a tweet by Lt Gen L. Nishikanta Singh (retd), tweeted: "An extraordinarily sad call from a retired Lt Gen from Manipur. Law & order situation in Manipur needs urgent attention at the highest level."

A mob burnt down a warehouse near the Imphal palace grounds on Friday evening and then clashed with personnel of the Manipur's Rapid Action Force (RAF) when the security personnel tried to prevent them.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, whose house in Imphal was vandalised and set on fire by a mob, said that despite the presence of central forces, the law and order situation in Manipur has totally collapsed.

"10 per cent of total remaining MBBS seats after deduction of 15 per cent All India Quota, Central Pool, Northeastern council quota etc. will be reserved annually for NRI/NRI-sponsored students," he tweeted.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, whose house in Imphal was vandalised and set on fire by a mob, said on Friday that despite the presence of a huge number of central forces, the law and order situation in Manipur has totally failed.

According to police officials, a mob of 200 men and women attacked the Central Minister's residence late Thursday night. Singh, who is also the Minister of state for Education, is currently in Delhi.

A Manipuri youth body in Assam has claimed that the ruling Mizoram National Front (MNF), which is led by Chief Minister Zoramthanga, is attempting to split Manipur by helping the Kukis, who are engaged in violence amid clashes between groups that are causing bloodshed in the state of Manipur.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that the Guwahati railway station will be transformed into a next-generation station which will have all the state-of-the-art facilities.

In a fresh incident of violence, assailants burnt the official residence of Manipur's Industry Minister Nemcha Kipgen in the Lamphel area in Imphal West district late on Wednesday evening, officials said.

Two people were arrested during the seizure, who have been identified as Bhabesh Kumar and Saminur Islam. According to the police, 95,360 bottles of cough syrup were confiscated from three vehicles on Tuesday night.

Eminent theatre personality Ratan Thiyam on Wednesday pulled out of the Manipur peace committee, constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last week to facilitate the peacemaking process among various ethnic groups of the state.

A police official said that heavily armed militants attacked the village late on Tuesday night and fired at the villagers with automatic weapons killing nine people on the spot and injuring 23 others, including women.

Chandra Kumar Nath, husband of Assam woman BJP leader Junali Nath whose body was found on road in Assam's Goalpara district, has filed an FIR against CID IGP Debaraj Upadhyay, alleging a "doubtful" investigative report by the police.

At least nine villagers were killed and 25 others injured when suspected militants attacked Khamelock village in Imphal East district and fired indiscriminately, police said on Wednesday.

The Gauhati High Court has upheld its September 2018 verdict absolving former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the charges of planning a string of arbitrary executions more than 20 years ago.

Altogether 1,040 sophisticated arms and 13,601 pieces of ammunition of different kinds have been recovered out of thousands of weapons looted by by mobs, and extremists from the security forces after the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, officials said on Tuesday.

The police said on Tuesday that Jonali Nath, a woman BJP leader from Assam's Goalpara district whose body was discovered on Sunday night next to the highway, was murdered by her partner Hasanur Islam.

A petition in the court on this issue claimed that those who are actually running the illegal coal businesses in Meghalaya are based in Assam. They are well-known people and are roaming freely in Guwahati. Several Benami transactions have also come to light.

In a significant development, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as part of the efforts to restore peace and normalcy in violence-hit Manipur, has held a closed-door meeting with the state's Kuki tribal leaders and Kuki rebel groups in Guwahati.

Though not many sedition cases have been reported from the northeastern states, lawyers and experts in the region felt that the law must be abolished so that the party in power could not use sedition to suppress voices of dissent.

Both Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister N. Biren Singh have earlier appealed to people to surrender their weapons and no legal action would be taken if the people deposit their arms voluntarily.

Singh, a former member of the now abolished Planning Commission, in his report had said that the northeastern states must accelerate their own resources and revenue to build up sustainable fiscal situations while each northeastern state has unique features and challenges.