Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Saturday that bunkers set up along national highways by vigilante groups have been cleared and warned of stern action against these groups if they continued to use arms in the name of defending their villages.
After visiting a relief camp for pregnant women at Khuman Lampak in state capital Imphal, the Chief Minister told reporters that "no one can presume the districts as separate states as Manipur exists entirely as one entity.” Biren said the perpetrators of the June 21 IED explosion have been identified and the case has been handed over to the NIA.
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Terming the incident as a cowardly act, he said NIA agents have “reached the state and have begun investigating." The explosion at Kwakta in Bishnupur district had left two teenagers and a 7-year-old boy injured. "The government will no longer remain a silent spectator to law breakers," Biren said, adding "instances of firing are being dealt with firmly by both the state and central forces."
Expressing concern on regular incidents of violence at night, Biren said, "It is making Imphal valley paralysed and preventing the movement of security forces.” Appealing to people to support the central forces, Biren said, "Terrorist groups will be given appropriate and befitting punishment."
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Earlier in the day, a group of people set on fire a private godown of state minister L Susindro at Chingarel in Imphal East district, reducing it to ashes. An attempt was also made to torch another property of the consumer and food affairs minister and his residence at Khurai in the same district on Friday night but timely intervention prevented it.
Security forces fired several rounds of tear gas shells till midnight to prevent the mob from gheraoing his Khurai residence, police said. No casualty was reported. The houses or properties of half-a-dozen MLAs and ministers were burnt down by rampaging mobs since the ethnic clashes began in Manipur.
More than 100 people have lost their lives and a large number of houses were torched rendering many people homeless in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in the northeastern state so far.
Clashes first broke out on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals - Nagas and Kukis - constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.
