Manipur burns

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed the security situation in Manipur even as fresh protests took place despite clamping of indefinite curfew over the killing of six people by militants in Jiribam district.

Shah held the meeting soon after he returned from Maharashtra after cancelling his election rallies there and directed the top officials to take all possible steps to ensure peace in the northeastern state, sources said. The Home Minister is also expected to hold another detailed meeting with top officers on Monday and take further steps, they said.

The Home Minister reviewed the situation in Manipur with top security officials and directed them to take all possible steps to ensure peace, the sources said. Shah is expected to hold another detailed meeting with top officers on Monday and take further steps, they said.

The move came as the situation in Manipur, which has been reeling from ethnic strife since May last year, continued to be volatile following protests and violence after the recovery of bodies of women and children.

Irate mobs set ablaze the residences of three more BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley even as security forces foiled an attempt to storm the ancestral residence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, officials said.

The fresh incidents of violent protests took place on Saturday night even as an indefinite curfew was clamped after people, agitated by the killing of three women and three children by militants in Jiribam district, attacked the residences of three state ministers and six MLAs earlier on Saturday. Enraged people torched the houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam’s BJP MLA Y Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha’s BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district and Khundrakpam’s Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, the officials said.

The legislators and their family members were not at home when the mob stormed their residential compounds, vandalised properties and set the houses on fire, police said, adding the houses were partially burnt in the incidents.

The Manipur Police on November 11 claimed 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately at Borobekra Police Station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district.

Hours later, suspected militants allegedly abducted six civilians, including women and children, from the same district, police had claimed. On Saturday, the Union Home Ministry said that all security forces deployed in Manipur have been directed to take necessary steps to restore order and peace in the state where the situation remained “fragile” in the past few days.

It said armed miscreants from both communities in conflict have been indulging in violence leading to unfortunate loss of lives and disruption in public order.

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year. It started after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.