Apex Meitei body gives 24-hrs to Manipur, Centre and state government to take ‘decisive action’

Imphal: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of the Meitei community, has given a 24-hour ultimatum to the Centre and the state government of 24 hours to take “decisive action” against armed groups or face public anger, as violent protests continued contained within the Valley districts and the homes of a few ministers and MLAs were attacked by mobs.

COCOMI Spokesperson Khuraijam Athouba urged each of the 50 MLAs (except 10 tribal legislators), comprising ruling and opposition parties to take a seat down together and take decisive action against the armed groups and to resolve the ethnic crisis.

“The complete MLAs and other leaders should sit together to take decisive actions to resolve the current crisis at the earliest. In the event that they do now now not take any decisive actions as much as the satisfaction of the people of the state, then the federal government will bear the brunt of the people’s discontent and anger,” Athouba told the media.

“Urgent defense force crackdown is necessary against the militants and every of the armed groups,” the COCOMI leader said.

Strongly opposing the promulgation of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 in six police stations in five districts last week, he said that the Ministry of Home Affairs unilaterally imposed the AFSPA against the need of the people of the state while there should not any major incidents of violence in most of the six police stations.

Meanwhile, 13 civil society organisations, which observed a 24-hour shutdown in six Imphal Valley districts last week to protest the reported “abduction” of six people, belonging to the Meitei community, have often referred to as for the resignations of all 50 MLAs in Manipur, including Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, citing an absence of political will and warning of a imaginable public uprising.

A kind of different organisations and native clubs also issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the MLAs demanding they make a public statement on the ongoing turmoil in Manipur.

Meanwhile, mobs set fire to the residences of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong and four more legislators – three more of the BJP and surely some of the Congress – in greater than about a districts of the Manipur Valley since Saturday night while the protection forces foiled a few other attempts, including on the ancestral place of dwelling of the Chief Minister at Luwangshangbam in Imphal East district.

The MLAs and their members of the family were now now not at home when the mobs including females attacked or tried to attack their residences.

Nonetheless, the mobs vandalised vehicles and properties and set two houses on fire.

Assam Rifles, the BSF, and state forces, including commandos, fired a few rounds of tear gas shells, and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. injuring greater than 15 people.

Protesters also burnt tyres on the principle roads contained within the capital city and piled up greater than about a materials and heavy iron rods to stop vehicular movement.

Mobs had attacked the residences of at least three ministers and 6 MLAs, mostly of the ruling BJP, on Saturday after the recovery of the bodies of six missing females and teens contained within the violence-hit Jiribam district.

Police said that the mobs comprising men and girls attacked the residences of ministers Sapam Ranjan Singh, Leishangthem Susindro Meitei and Yumnam Khemchand Singh in other places.

The mob also attacked the homes of six legislators, including that of Rajkumar Imo Singh, who's Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s son-in-law.

The six bodies, which are now now not yet identified by the members of the family, are believed to be of the six females and teens missing since November eleven in Jiribam district. The bodies, found on Friday and Saturday near the confluence of the Jiri and Barak rivers along the Manipur-Assam border, were dropped at the Silchar Medical College and Sanatorium in Assam for post-mortem examinations.

Because the widespread attacks and protests started, authorities imposed a curfew for an indefinite period in Imphal East, West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching districts of Imphal valley “as a consequence of developing law and order situation”. Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi ordered the suspension of mobile information superhighway and data products and services in seven districts — Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Kangpokpi, and Churachandpur — for 2 days from Saturday evening.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday directed each of the protection forces to take the mandatory steps to revive order and peace and take strict action against anyone in search of to take pleasure in violent and disruptive activities.

An MHA statement said that the protection scenario in Manipur has remained fragile for the past few days.”Armed miscreants from both communities in conflict have been indulging in violence leading to unfortunate loss of lives and disruption in public order,” it said.