Shut down against arrest of 7 by CBI, NIA hits life in Manipur’s Churachandpur
CONFLICT
Imphal: Normal life in Churachandpur district was paralyzed on Monday because of an indefinite shutdown against the arrest of four persons and detention of two minor children by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and another by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the Chin-Kuki-Zo dominated district.
On Sunday, the half-dozen persons were arrested in connection with the alleged killing of two Imphal students who went missing on July 6.
The other individual was pulled up on Saturday in a case related to an alleged transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh based terror outfits’ leadership in collaboration with Kuki militant outfit of Manipur to wage war against India by exploiting the current turmoil in Manipur.
In an operation, a crack combined team of the Army and state police arrested the six between Kangvai and Molhoi areas at the Singhat area.
Because of the shutdown called by Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), business establishments at Churachandpur district headquarters, about 67 km from Imphal, were shut.
Except for emergency and ceremonial services, no vehicles plied on the road as central forces and district cops remained vigil as preemptive measures though no untoward incident was reported for the day.
After the arrest of the six, people gathered in front of the office of the district’s SP and vent out their anger till Monday morning, sources said.
Protestors came out in the streets and blocked roads at Churachandpur headquarters to enforce the shutdown, they added.
As announced by the ITLF, all boundary areas with the Meitei community were sealed and government institutions were also closed.
Public protests erupted in the valley districts after photos of the two missing students, a boy and a girl, and their purported dead bodies went viral on the social media last week.
On Monday, parents of the two victim students categorically demanded the government to hand over the bodies of their children for performing the last rites.
Besides ITLF, the Joint Students’ Body (JSB) Lamka (Churachandpur) also imposed a 12-hour shut down on Monday from 6am to 6pm against similar issue.
“This shutdown is a show of our opposition to the selective and discriminatory opening of cases and investigation by central agencies under the influence of the state government while the hundreds of cases of heinous crimes against our people remain uninvestigated and the inhumane act of arresting innocent school children and transporting them out of the state,”JSB said.