Imphal, December 26 2008: KILLING OF an IRB man by suspected militants make anguish the villagers who blocked the Imphal-Ukhrul road Friday at Pudongbam in Imphal east disturbing the normal traffic on the NH-150. Police fired tear gas and other mob ammunitions to quell the protestors blocking the highway connecting Imphal with Ukhrul district of Manipur.

No serious injury to the protestors reported in the police action. An IRB man on leave name Shijagurumayum Surjit (30) son of late Bira of Sekta village under Imphal east was gunned down by suspected militants who took away him while going with his wife yesterday at around 5.30 pm.

Villagers said that he was forcibly taken away by the miscreants stating that they have an important thing to talk with him and by convincing his wife to release him unharmed.

But not sooner had he been carried away, he was shot dead at a spot at Lousangkhong not so far away from the place where he has been taken away. The bead body of the personnel of the 4th IRB on leave retrieved by the police from the spot yesterday evening is still lying at RIMS morgue, Imphal as family with the support of the villagers refused to receive demanding finding and booking of the culprits by the government authorities.

�We could not allow with the attitudes of the gunmen killing an unarmed man who was with his wife,� said the protestors adding that �they (gunmen) are not human but �animals� in the jungle. �If he (Surjit) was happened to kill in clash when he is on duty, we may not get angry.

But killing a man in uniform taking advantage of coming home to join his family is not agreeable thing to us.

None in this world will treat the act of militants (villagers believed the killer are militants) as that of brave and courageous man,� Ibeni an middle age woman of the village taking part in the protest lamented. In the morning today, hundreds of villagers took to the streets on the Imphal-Ukhrul section of the highway 150 at Pungdongbam and blocked the road by sitting on the road.

They forced vehicles coming from both Imphal and Ukhrul side and turned back before the police arrived there. As they refused blocking the road, police resorted in firing tear gas and other mob ammunitions and dispersed them and allow resuming the normal traffic.

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