Three injured, houses and buses burnt in fresh violence in Manipur

Congress legislators met Governor Anusuiya Uikey in Imphal and demanded an emergency Assembly session to discuss the ‘ongoing unprecedented turmoil’ in the State

Buses burnt down on NH-2 at Saropormaina area in Kangpokpi district of Manipur on July 26, 2023. | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar

Three persons were injured, and several abandoned houses and two buses were burnt by armed miscreants in three separate incidents in violence-hit Manipur on Tuesday and Thursday.

The first incident took place on Tuesday, when suspected armed miscreants fired in the Heikol, and Phougakchao Ikhai areas of Bishnupur district, in which three civilians sustained injuries, Manipur Police said in a tweet. “Security forces retaliated to the firing and repelled the miscreants,” the police said.

On Wednesday, nine persons were arrested for setting two buses on fire in Kangpokpi district the previous day. The incident took place at Sapermeina on National Highway 2 when a mob burnt down two buses on suspicion that members of the Meitei community were present in the vehicles. A juvenile was among those apprehended for the crime, the police said. 

The third incident was reported from Moreh. On Wednesday, “an unruly mob burnt around 15/16 abandoned houses and partially burnt the Forest Guest House at Moreh,” the police said, adding that security forces intervened and dispersed the mob. The houses belonged to the Meitei community who had to flee the village following the ethnic violence that erupted in the State on May 3.

More than 140 persons have been killed and over 54,000 persons displaced since the violence between the Meitei and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities stared in May.

Meanwhile, five members of the Congress legislature party in Manipur, including former Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh, met Governor Anusuiya Uikey in Imphal and demanded an emergency Assembly session to discuss the “ongoing unprecedented turmoil” in the State.