GUWAHATI: An officer of the rank of SP was among several police personnel and civilians injured Friday evening in Manipur’s Kangpokpi as a mob bristling over the deployment of central forces in a Kuki-Zo village laid siege to the district police chief’s office.
SP Manoj Prabhakar and his team were the target of stone-pelting by the mob, ostensibly triggered by the administration’s refusal to withdraw central forces from Saibol village, bordering Imphal East district. The number of injured and hospitalisations, if any, couldn’t be immediately verified.
A row of vehicles parked in the compound of the SP’s office was vandalised, sources said.
The year’s first law-and-order blip in the conflict-ridden state came days after CM N Biren Singh apologised for 20 months of violence on his watch and urged the warring ethnic communities to “forgive and forget”.
Kuki-Zo organisations have been protesting an alleged baton charge on women by security forces in Saibol village on Dec 31. Committee on Tribal Unity called a 12-hour shutdown in the district, coinciding with the mob outrage.
Manipur Police said the Dec 31 crackdown was meant to disperse a crowd of women that allegedly attempted to disrupt the deployment of Army, BSF and CRPF personnel at Uyokching, near Thamnapokpi in the same district.
They said a joint team of police and central forces got the crowd to leave the site with minimal use of force. “The situation in that area is since under control,” an officer said.
On New Year’s Eve, CM Biren Singh said the situation in Manipur had improved considerably, based on official data, and it was about time a political dialogue started between the communities involved in the ethnic conflict.
Comparing the period May to Oct 2023 and May 2024 to date, the CM said the state reported far fewer deaths (down from 178 to 12) and instances of injuries (1,429 to 160) in violence the past year.
