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Protest heat singes Manipur cops
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051012/asp/guwahati/story_5347600.asp |
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OUR CORRESPONDENT |
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Imphal, Oct. 11: After the Assam Rifles last year, Manipur police have become embroiled in a controversial killing when an encounter death, reminiscent of the Thangjam Manorama incident, sparked angry civilian protests today. This morning, a team of Manipur police commandos, specially trained to fight insurgents, shot dead a 24-year-old youth at Yairipok Pechi, in Thoubal district. According to the police, Laisrham Indrajit Singh, who was suspected to be a member of the militant Peoples United Liberation Front, was gunned down in an encounter and two AK-47 rifles were found on him. However, Indrajits family and other residents of Wangjing, the village from where the dead youth hailed, contradicted the police version. The youths family members said Indrajit was innocent and he was killed after being picked up by the police earlier in the morning. His distraught mother Mombi Devi said Indrajit, a father of two young boys, was a simple villager. He had gone to visit his sister Piyarani at her home in another part of the village and was on his way to the market at around 8.30 am when the police picked him up. She alleged that the commandos shot Indrajit in cold blood. The youths death sparked a furore and a large number of protesters, led by Mombi Devi, stormed chief minister Okram Ibobi Singhs official residence in Imphal later in the day. A delegation of the agitators met the chief minister and demanded action against the policemen involved in the case. They also submitted a memorandum claiming Indrajit was innocent and he had been killed in custody. Last July, Assam Rifles found itself on a sticky wicket after a few of its jawans allegedly raped and killed Thangjam Manorama. The member of the banned Peoples Liberation Army had been shot dead in contentious circumstances after being arrested from her residence during a raid. Her family refuted the paramilitary forces account of her death and refused to accept her body. They accused the jawans of raping her in custody and then killing her to destroy evidence. The allegations led to statewide protests that culminated in the naked agitation by women activists in front of the Kangla Fort, the erstwhile headquarters of the Assam Rifles. Calls for action against the guilty and revoking the much-hated Armed Forces Special Powers Act pushed the Assam Rifles and the Centre on the backfoot and forced the Centre to take a re-look at the controversial act. The Assam Rifles also instituted a probe into the allegations. On August 31, Manipur moved the Imphal bench of Gauhati High Court against a directive from a single-judge bench to hand over the C. Upendra Commissions report on the Thangjam Manorama custody death case to Delhi. In an unrelated development, tension gripped Jiribam subdivision after two armed groups clashed last night at Kamranga, bordering Cachar district of Assam. The clash left one militant dead and another wounded. Following the shootout, security has been tightened in the area and police patrolling stepped up. However, the identities of the two groups are yet to be ascertained and no arrests have been made. |
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