Houses damaged, 7 villagers injured
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 09 2020:
A group of unidentified people attacked Leimakhong Chingmang village, Imphal West district at around 7.30 pm yesterday and damaged five houses apart from inflicting injuries to at least seven villagers.
According to information culled from the spot, the miscreants attacked Leimakhong Chingmang village by pelting stones with hand and catapults in addition to vandalising five houses.
The assailants reportedly spoke broken Manipuri and used highly provocative and abusive words.
Leimakhong Chingmang village secretary Moirangthem Rabichandra said that the villagers were gathering at the house of a Gram Panchayat Member when they came under a volley of slingshots.
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Saying that it was not the first or isolated attack, Rabichandra maintained that the local sylvan deity's complex was vandalised earlier.
"But to all these attacks and provocations, we always opted to negotiate all issues peacefully and kept quiet", said the village secretary.
He said that seven villagers sustained injuries because of the attack.
Two of them were rounded up and thrashed by the unidentified group of people while the rest five were struck by stones and other projectiles.
The two victims who were thrashed by the assailants have been identified as Irungbam Purnachandra (55) and Iqbal Hussain (24).Following the attack, some villagers particularly women and children have been shifted to safer places of relatives, Rabichandra informed.
He went on to assert that Leimakhong Chingmang and all the surrounding villages are well within Imphal West district and this fact is well documented in official records.
As such, these villages have been paying land tax to the Sekmai SDC, he said.
When hill people settle at this area, a new village chief emerges when they have two or three households and they would join a separate Assembly segment and district, Rabichandra said.
He also expressed keen desire for the Government to demarcate the area at the earliest and settle the matter for good.