Village volunteers arrested, two hurt
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal/Thoubal, June 24 2023:
A tense situation gripped Itham and Moirangpurel areas of Imphal East district today after around 10 village defence volunteers were arrested by the army.
Troops of Gorkha Regiment, attached to Moirangpurel BSF post came to Itham at around noon today and arrested around 10 village defence volunteers.
On learning about the arrest, a large number of Meira Paibis from the locality and surrounding areas rushed to Itham and confronted the GR troops.
Not long after, another large group of Meira Paibis came from the Nongbrang side too.
The Meira Paibis totally surrounded Itham and did not allow the GR troops to take away the village defence volunteers.
As the confrontation between the GR troops and the villagers, particularly women who were demanding release of the village defence volunteers grew more intense, the army opened fire and charged upon the womenfolk.
In the meantime, the GR troops shot one village defence volunteer on the fingers of both the hands.
The victim identified as Maibam Dingku (24) s/o M Mani of Nongbrang was taken to Raj Medicity.
One truck driver, Laishom Sanjoy (40) s/o L Itoba driver was also apprehended by the GR troops.
The GR troops let him off only after subjecting him to severe thrashing.
Sanjoy was taken to CHC Moirangpurel.
The army personnel further smashed the windshield of his truck.
People also blocked all roads leading to and from Itham at Nongpok Keithelmanbi, Keihao and Itham Moirangpurel etc.
They also dug out roads at different key points leaving no way for the GR troops to leave the area.
As the army personnel tried to take out one driver, the civilians confronted the troops who responded by baton-charging the civilians including Meira Paibis.
As a result, many people sustained injuries but the exact figure could not be ascertained till the time of filing this report.
The army personnel could not leave the area as they were surrounded by the people from all sides.
Left with no other option, the GR personnel retreated to the nearby hills.
The arrested persons were later let off.
A late report informed that a large number of Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel arrived at the area and they were working hard to control the situation.