New Delhi, May 22
Fresh incidents of violence were reported in Manipur today as two abandoned houses were torched by a mob in Imphal East district after two armed miscreants forced people to shut their shops, police officials said.
However, no casualty was reported due to the arson. The mob beat up one of the miscreants while the other managed to flee. The two were subsequently taken into custody. Army men deployed in the area rushed to the spot and used force and fired teargas shells to disperse the mob, resulting in minor injuries to a few people, the officials said.
Locals protested the incident by burning tyres on the road and following the incident, the curfew hours in Imphal East district, which had earlier been relaxed, were extended, they said. The government also issued a fresh notification extending the suspension of internet services for another five days till May 26.
The clashes broke out in Manipur after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts on May 3 to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status. The violence was preceded by tension over the eviction of tribal Kuki villagers from reserve forest land, which had led to a series of smaller agitations.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley. Tribal Nagas and Kukis constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts. The ethnic clashes have so far claimed over 70 lives and some 10,000 Army and paramilitary personnel had to be deployed to bring back normalcy in the state.