A cleaner of a passenger bus identified as Hawaibam Amujao (18) of Sekmaijin Mamang Leikai in Thoubal district who was whisked away from the parking in Imphal on Thursday afternoon by some persons was shown to have been killed in an “encounter” with the troopers of 28 Assam Rifles the same night at Kongba Irong in Imphal East district. Family members and villagers are protesting against the “fake encounter” and are refusing to take charge of the body from the mortuary.
Family members of another victim saw the body and had accordingly informed the parents. The women of Sekmaijin staged a sit-in and formed a Joint Action Committee to spearhead agitations. The Assam Rifles had claimed that one .32 pistol and some rounds of ammunition had been recovered.
Bodies brought back
Meanwhile, the bodies of three persons who were murdered after being kidnapped from a house at Dimapur in Nagaland have been brought to Imphal for the last rites. Police took up precautionary measures to ensure that there was no undesirable fallout.
Police have arrested one injured rebel of the People's Liberation Army while he was about to leave Manipur for treatment to another State. He was one of the rebels injured in the encounter with the Assam Rifles troopers at Maryland in Chandel district on Wednesday. Another injured rebel had also been nabbed earlier. In the encounter, two rebels were killed. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized.
