The Maoist Communist Party (MCP) a banned underground organisation has claimed responsibility for planting the foreign made bomb near the house of the sitting Congress MP Meinya Thokchom on Tuesday. It was one of the 15 bombs the MCP has planted at different places ahead of the last phase polling on Thursday.
Police say that the plan was to ambush the MP and his entourage while returning home from campaigning. All these days, the MCP has been making a frontal attack against the MP. Police sources said that with the timely detection of the bomb near the house of the MP an assassination attempt has been foiled. The MCP called a 12 hour general strike on Wednesday. There was mixed response. Normal life was also disrupted. No passenger bus and truck plied. However, some cars were seen on the roads. There was no report of any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, one 42 year old man Sanayaima Oinam succumbed to burn injuries on Wednesday morning in a private hospital in Imphal. Reports said that he was running a thriving business of selling fuel on the blackmarket. This is a very lucrative business in Manipur which faces blockades, strikes and other forms of obstructions almost 200 days in a year. Besides all petrol pumps operate from 7 am to 4 pm on working days only. Besides these there are shut down on many flimsy pretexts.
On Tuesday night, one diesel tanker was siphoning off diesel to jerrycans and an underground fuel tank at Tera in Imphal west district when there was a fire. Two houses were gutted. Oinam who was caught in the raging fire sustained 70 per cent burn injuries. He was dragged out of the burning houses only when fire fighters arrived much later. He was rushed to Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal. As his condition got deteriorated, the family members shifted him to a private hospital. He died on Wednesday morning.
Police have registered a case. However, the driver and the owner of the oil tanker who made the illegal sale to Oinam are yet to be arrested. In the past, there had been such fire accidents since such illegal sales are everywhere. No arrest was made in connection with those accidents.
