Highway blocked
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 19 2014 :
Traffic along NH-2 was disrupted for around one and half hours from 4 pm today at Kakwa Lamdaibung as a large number of locals and Meira Paibis of the locality blocka-ded the highway demanding safe release of a newspaper hawker, who was allegedly arrested by a team of 40 Assam Rifles, Lilong Post on the charge of being a member of KCP.
A woman protester said that Thongbam Jiten (47) s/o (L) Mangoljao of Kakwa Lamdaibung was arrested by a team of 40 AR, Lilong Post from Lilong bridge at around 7.30 last night.
Claiming Jiten as a KCP member, the AR team later handed him over to Lilong Police Station, the woman said.
She added the paramilitary team had also claim ed that four live rounds were seized from Jiten's possession.
Saying that Jiten is an innocent civilian, who leads life as a newspaper hawker, the woman said that all the allegations levelled against him are baseless.
She also appealed to release Jiten at the earliest without any condition.
Later, the protesters were dispersed by police at around 5.30 pm.
Meanwhile, All Manipur Newspaper Sales and Distributor's Association con- demned the arrest and alleged torture of Thongbam Jiten by Assam Rifles troops.
Demanding Jiten's immediate and unconditional re- lease, the association cautioned that different forms of agitation would be laun-ched if the demand is not fulfilled.