Imphal, January 25 2009: The newly set up Legal Protection has completed all preparations to file at least five different cases against extra judicial killings.

The Legal Protection Centre was set up jointly by retired Judges, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and senior citizens.

Speaking to this reporter today, Advocate Khaidem Mani said that the centre has received papers of five different cases of extra judicial killings.

Once the necessary dossiers are collected, the centre would move the appropriate courts for justice and also to establish the facts and circumstances of the killings, Mani said.

The Legal Protection Centre was established on January 19 here with retired Sessions Judge C Upendra, senior journalist K Madhumangol and senior citizen L Sadananda and a number of human rights activists as its key members.

The centre was established in the backdrop of the ongoing relay hunger strike being staged in solidarity to Irom Sharmila who has been fasting unto death for the last eight years demanding complete repeal of the infamous Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 from all over Manipur.

The establishment of the centre assumes greater significance considering the large number of people shot dead on daily basis in the trouble torn State.

Over 500 people were killed in different violent incidents last year, most of whom were shot dead in alleged fake encounters by security forces.

With 40 people already killed before the end of the first month this year, there is no sign of any respite in the killing spree.

Khaidem Mani observed that at least three to four persons are shot dead in the State on daily basis by the State actors in alleged encounters.

But majority of the victims never got any justice and they simply passed into oblivion as one such incidents/cases overshadowed by similar incidents quickly on daily basis.

In most of the cases of killings perpetrated by security forces, security forces regularly claimed about recovery of weapons from the victims but the bereaved families, local people and eye witnesses often came up with altogether different stories, he noted.

Observing that victimised families seldom file cases against killings perpetrated by security personnel although they never failed to voice their protest and condemnation after forming joint action committees with the local people and civil organisations, Mani said that the centre was set up to provide legal assistance to families of such victims and to create legal awareness among the mass.