No letup in anti-CAB protests : Cops fire tear gas, smoke bombs to disperse protesters
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 08 2019:
Police resorted to firing tear gas shells and smoke bombs to disperse a large number of people who took out a protest demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, by blocking one side of the Uripok-Kangchup road today afternoon.
The incident occurred at around 2.30 pm today when a large number of womenfolk tried to march towards Uripok flyover shouting slogans opposing the CAB and demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Minister N Biren.
The police personnel, who were deployed at the area tried to force the protesters to clear the road so as to ensure free passage of the vehicles which were left stranded due to the protest.
The police personnel also started removing the blockades placed by the protesters on the road.
In the meantime, some of the protesters started marching towards the flyover bridge but they were eventually blocked by a large number of police personnel and prevented from advancing any further, which resulted in a heated argument between the two sides.
Finally, the police had to use smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Enraged by the action of the police, many of the youth who were present near by the protesting site joined the movement and started pelting stones toward the police personnel.
Some of the protesters even took out their protest by sitting in the middle of the road and blocked the vehicles.
After additional reinforcements arrived, the police tried to clear the people who were protesting in the middle of the road but the situation turned ugly when one of the police officers tried to snatch a sling shot which a youth was holding.
A major scuffle broke out and as such, the police began firing tear gas shells and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd.
It may be mentioned that earlier, members of MANPAC came up to the protest site and held a street corner meeting with the protesters where they spoke about the impact of the CAB in the North East region.
One of the speakers at the street corner meeting alleged that CM N Biren is trying to confuse the people of the State but MANPAC has already gone through the context of the Bill and upon coming to know about the impact of the Bill towards the indigenous people of the region and Manipur in particular, they (MANPAC) have been spearheading the protest against the Bill.
During the protest, the people shouted slogans like "we oppose Citizenship Amendment Bill-2016", "Long Live Manipur" and "Resign CM N Biren" etc.
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