Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network
Imphal, August 14:
The Kuki Students' Organisation, Chandel District (KSO-Chandel) has alleged that the August 7 ambush on the convoy carrying Manipur Education minister L Jayentakumar and two other MLAs, was stage managed.
The KSO unit said it carried out a thorough investigation into the incident but found that "there never was an ambush" at the area.
According to newspaper reports, some unidentified gunmen ambushed the convoy of the ministerial team which was returning from the border town of Moreh after participating in a programme.
The incident reportedly occurred at a place between Khudengthabi and Lokchao along the Imphal-Moreh route on the day.
However, KSO strongly denied such ambush taking place in the area.
According to the finding of the Kuki students' body, the shooting began when an inebriated jawan (escort) accidentally fired off his service rifle which had prompted the letting loose a hail of bullets in order to hide his guilt.
The KSO-Chandel further alleged, "this led to a chain reaction.
Everything was concocted and faked with malignant intent to give a bad name to the people of the area which was an insult to the people.
The incident was also reported in the newspapers in which the security personnel had claimed to have killed 7 to 8 of the alleged highway looters".
The KSO claimed that not a single person was killed in the incident since the ambush was a staged one.
Countering the reported claim of the security force personnel that the unidentified gunmen were highway looters, the KSO-Chandel said that no highway looters would dare to attack such a large Ministerial convoy of security force personnel.
The Kuki students body also said that the area has a clean record/history and that even in the days of ethnic clashes, no incident of murder, violence or any criminal act had taken place in the area.
Given this point, the KSO-Chandel flatly dismissed the
claim that "an unidentified person dressed in camouflage carrying sophisticated weapon had stopped the convoy of the ministerial team".
"This is unbelievable.
No person in his right mind would stop or even attempt to stop well armed security personnel coming down in armoured vehicles.
This is absurd," reasoned the KSO-Chandel.