Khurai defies Imphal curfew

Sanjit’s village takes out protest rally, mother lodges FIR; Ibobi govt urged to lift curfew

Imphal, Aug. 8 : Greater Imphal continued to be on the boil today with residents violating curfew and demanding chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s resignation. Villagers of Sajor Leikai in Khurai of Imphal East, the locality of Ch. Sanjit, who was allegedly killed by police in a fake encounter here on July 23, took out a protest rally and shouted slogans demanding Ibobi Singh’s resignation and punishment to guilty police commandos. A large number of police and Manipur Rifles personnel were deployed in Khurai but they did not try to disperse the protesters. They, however, did not allow Sajor Leikai protesters to proceed beyond the village boundaries. There were reports of violation of curfew in other parts of Greater Imphal as well. The police burst teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. They picked up one of the protesters who was burning effigies of Ibobi Singh and director-general of police Yumnam Joykumar Singh at Tera bazar in Imphal West. Another protester was seriously injured at Langthabal in Imphal West last night when a rubber bullet hit his right eye. Naorem Prakash has been admitted to Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital. Doctors said his eye could be permanently damaged. The state PCC appealed to the Ibobi Singh government to resolve the agitation by talking to NGOs and lift the curfew as people were suffering. PCC president Gaikhangam also appealed to the public to extend co-operation to the judicial inquiry so that the truth could emerge. He urged the government to pay compensation to the kin of the dead and the injured. Sanjit’s mother, Taratombi Devi, today formally lodged a complaint with city police, demanding punishment to the guilty. In her complaint to the officer-in-charge of Imphal city police, she charged that police commandos arrested her son in the city on July 23, took him inside a pharmacy and shot him dead. The complaint said Sanjit was in the city that day to buy medicine for his uncle who was being treated at Jawaharlal Nehru hospital. She demanded that the case be investigated and the guilty personnel punished. Taratombi Devi said she could not file the complaint immediately after the incident because she was in a state of shock and also wanted to know the details before taking any step. While the city police refused to disclose whether they had registered an FIR, the Khurai Action Committee said they had. Sanjit’s mother also submitted a written request to Imphal West senior superintendent of police L. Kailun to direct city police to register an FIR against the police personnel involved in killing her son. She also submitted a written request to DGP Yumnam Joykumar Singh to provide the order copies of the (seven) police personnel suspended in connection with the case. Ukhrul remained shut during the 24-hour district bandh called by Tangkhul Youth Council in protest against the July 23 killings of Sanjit and a woman, Rabina Devi. The youth council demanded that the government withdraw its decision to deploy India Reserve Battalion and police commandos in the hills. “The Imphal city killings have confirmed that the police commandos are an indisciplined force. If they come to the hills, they will commit the same killings,” youth council president Zanyo Varam said over phone. He also said the council had called the general strike against harassment of villagers by Kuki militants at Itham, Keihao, Litan and other areas in Senapati and Ukhrul districts. In another development, ballistic experts from the government Forensic Science Laboratory today examined the hole left by a “bullet” on the glass door of an Imphal daily’s office last night. Some unknown persons had fired one round at the office of Paojel, a local evening paper, here around 9pm. Three journalists were sitting in the office when the bullet hit the door, but no one was injured. They alleged that police personnel enforcing curfew in the area had fired the shot. The ballistic experts took photographs of the hole but did not comment on whether it was made by a bullet. Kailun said a case had been registered and added that the hole could have been made by a missile shot from a catapult by goons. A team of journalists visited Ibobi Singh last night to apprise him of the incident and demanded an inquiry. The chief minister assured them that he would look into the matter. Journalists argued that only the police could have fired the shot as no was allowed to move in the area during curfew. A journalist, Rajen Singh, who was present in the office when the bullet hit the door, said a police motorcycle had passed the area at the time of firing. He, however, said they did not see anyone firing. The All Manipur Working Journalists Union today condemned the attack on the newspaper office.