Demarcation meets stiff resistance, 8 hurt in scuffle
Source: The Sangai Express
Thoubal, November 11 2021:
At least eight individuals were reportedly injured and fifteen houses destroyed in a scuffle with the police at Lilong Chingkham Ching this morning at around 9:30.It is reported that the scuffle broke out when a team of Revenue staff headed by the SDO Lilong was demarcating a piece of land at Lilong Chingkham to construct a police outpost.
Police fired tear gas shells, rubber bullets and smoke bombs to bring the situation under control thereby inflicting injuries to eight individuals.
The people who objected to the survey also pelted stones.
In the process, one house of Chingkham Kabui village was damaged.
As per the report culled from the spot, the team led by SDO Lilong A Shijalembi along with Thoubal police carried out a final demarcation and installed pegs to mark the boundary.
The locals and members of Lilong Chingkham Maya Development Organization objected to the installation of final pegs citing that a case is pending at the High Court.
As a large number of people started agitating, the police team which included high ranking officials fired tear gas shells, rubber bullets and smoke bombs to disperse the mob.
In the incident, at least eight individuals were injured .
They were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Regarding this incident, Lilong Chingkham Maya Development Organisation secretary Md Aslam Khan said that they would never accept such 'forceful land demarcation' using numerous security personnel to construct a police outpost.
He asked the Government to take responsibility for the casualty.
Asking the motive for surveying the land 'without giving any prior information, Md Aslam maintained that such forceful exercise could also create communal tension.
Saying that the conditions of two out of the eight individuals are critical, he urged the Government to do the needful to avoid such incidents in future.
He further urged the Government to probe the incident and do things that would be acceptable to all.
One Abdul Gani whose house was allegedly destroyed in the incident stated that the police fired several rounds of smoke bomb, tear gas shell and rubber bullet when he was preparing to go for an online class of the Forest Department.
Saying that he approached the police to stop firing at his house considering the feebleness of his mother, Gani claimed that the police, however, responded with vulgar words and continued firing.
Gani also claimed that he along with his brother evacuated his mother to a nearby pucca house as smoke bombs, tear gas shells fell on his mother's room.
Condemning the police for their alleged excesses, he urged all to stop harassing the innocent people.
Joint secretary of Chingkham Thoubei (Pei) M Gairanlung said that their ancestors started settling in the area about 300 years back as per Cheitharol Kumbaba.
Claiming that the Lilong Chingkham Development Organization filed a petition at the Court citing that their land patta is fake, he added that the Court, however, directed that the organisation doesn't have any right to claim the land as khas land.
Saying that one of their houses was also damaged in today's scuffle, he urged the Government to give them some protection.
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