A large number of people staged sit-in protests in different parts of Manipur for the second day on Monday demanding the arrest of persons responsible for the kidnapping and murder of social activist Athaun Abonemi from the venue of a public function in Tamenglong district on September 22.
Abonemi was kidnapped at the venue where Chief Minister N. Biren and some ministerial colleagues were scheduled to attend the function. There was high security in the district in face of the boycott call against the function. Security personnel were present when the activist was kidnapped and whisked away in a jeep. Mr. Biren who also holds Home portfolio admitted the “security lapses” and tendered an apology.
A Joint Action Committee was formed to spearhead the agitations demanding suitable action against the perpetrators. The leaders of the JAC held a meeting with Mr. Biren on Sunday night. Later, JAC convener Majabung Gangmei said, “The government has not conceded a single demand listed in our memorandum. We demanded the suspension of the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police. But the government has merely transferred them”. He further said that the JAC had extended the 48-hour deadline to arrest the culprits by another two days. After that there will be blockade of the two national highways for two days. It will be followed by a 24-hour total shutdown of Manipur for 24 hours. Mr. Gangmei said, “If the killers are not arrested, we will further spell out other forms of agitations”.
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The post-mortem on the body of Abonmei was conducted on Monday. However, the JAC refused to claim the body since the killers have not been accounted for. Though the State government had written an official letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday to allow the National Investigation Agency to handle this case there is so far no response.
Though there are reports of the “presence of NSCN(IM) camps” in some parts of Manipur, so far the combined forces which had rushed to Tamenglong to track down the killers have not come across any designated camp.