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| Harinder Yadav’s son (right) stands in front of his father’s body at JN Hospital on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Imphal, June 4 : Two gunmen walked into a grocery shop at Khurai Lamlong on the outskirts of Imphal city and fired several rounds at the shopkeeper from point-blank range around 2pm today when the market was teeming with people.
Harinder Yadav, 50, the owner of the store, was immediately taken to Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, not very far away, where he was declared brought dead. Yadav, originally from Chapra district of Bihar, is the 15th victim of ethnic cleansing in the state since February.
Though police launched search operations immediately after the attack, no arrests have been made. No outfit has claimed responsibility for the killing either.
Shopkeepers at Lamlong downed their shutters and staged a sit-in at the market immediately after the attack.
Unidentified men shot dead five migrant labourers in different places of Imphal West and Imphal East between February 28 and March 22 this year. The attacks forced a large number of migrants to flee Manipur while many others, working in different parts of the state, took shelter at a relief camp at Dharmasala, a lodge managed by the business community of the state.
The serial attacks were followed by the massacre of nine migrants inside Kebul Lamjao National Park at Loktak lake of Bishnupur district on May 11.
Suspected militants kidnapped the migrants from Khordak on the fringe of Loktak lake, took them inside the national park and gunned them down.
Five bodies were recovered the same day. But the police had to search for five more days to recover the rest. No group claimed responsibility and the police could not identify the killers.
The massacre took place exactly one month after the security forces and the police launched a 10-day operation inside the national park to flush out militants.
KCP-MC group
Decks have been cleared for a tripartite agreement on cessation of hostilities by the Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) faction headed by Lallumba alias Hiteshore with officials of the Manipur government and the Centre.
The group “agreed” to sign the ceasefire agreement after four rounds of talks were held with officials of the state and the Centre since late last year.
The outfit approached the Centre through the Assam Rifles for the peace deal. “The state’s peace effort with the KCP (MC-Lallumba) is making progress. The state and the group are ready to sign the agreement. The group has also expressed its readiness to sign the peace deal as soon as possible,” an official source said.
The source said the state cabinet has given its nod to the deal and the signing could take place in New Delhi this month. Additional chief secretary in charge of home D.S. Pooniah and IGP (intelligence) L.M. Khoute will represent Manipur and officials of the home ministry and senior officials of the Assam Rifles and the army will represent the Centre. Lallumba himself is expected to be present during the signing of the pact.
Actual talks would begin after the signing, followed by the verification of the strength of cadres and weapons of the group. The government has set up a ceasefire monitoring group headed by the IGP (intelligence).
Sources said the group, which claimed a strength of 370 cadres, had been operating in seven of the nine districts of the state.
“The government was planning to give them shelter at the surrender and rehabilitation centres in Jiribam in Imphal East after the surrender of weapons,” the source said. The militants will be shifted to a designated camp later.