Arrest of village volunteers protested
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 05 2024:
A massive uproar erupted over the arrest of three Meitei village volunteers by CRPF at Kangchup Chingkhong, Imphal West this afternoon.
A team of CRPF personnel arrested the village volunteers along with arms at around 3.30 pm.
Soon after learning about the arrest of the village volunteers, a large number of people from the adjoining villages came out and raised an uproar and confronted security forces.
Amid clanging of electric poles, the villagers protested vehemently against the arrest of the village volunteers.
They contended that the arrest of Meitei village volunteers is unacceptable while armed Kukis are given a free hand.
The protesters raised a massive uproar demanding immediate release of the arrested village volunteer.
Sensing that security forces may take the arrested village volunteer to Imphal, large numbers of protesters including men and women tried to block movement of security forces at Kangchup, Lamsang and Iroisemba by placing trees, bamboos, boulders etc on the road.
As large numbers of protesters gathered around security posts located at Kangchup and Phayeng demanding immediate release of the arrested village volunteers, additional security forces led by IGP (Range-I) Themthing Ngashangva rushed to the security forces and tried to drive away the protesters by firing tear gas shells and mock bombs.
Nonetheless, a tense standoff persisted between the protesters and security forces till late evening over the arrest of the village volunteers, sources said.