Violence Erupts in Manipur as People Demand Justice for Missing Teenagers
In Manipur’s Imphal city, there was a big problem recently. More than 60 people got hurt, including police officers, because of the violence. The violence started when a crowd of people got angry. They were protesting because they thought the police didn’t do enough when two teenagers disappeared and were maybe killed. This made the people very upset, and things turned violent quickly. Some of the protesters, including students, attacked a police officer and took his gun. They also attacked government buildings, the house of a political leader, set a police car on fire, and broke through barricades. This created a lot of problems for law and order in the state.
Manipur has already been having problems with fighting between two groups of people: the Kuki tribe and the Meitei community. This fighting started in May and has been going on for a while.
The protest turned violent because the crowd became outraged. They did things like trying to set a political party office on fire, throwing homemade bombs at police outposts, and even trying to set a government office on fire. They also threw rocks and used catapults to attack the police.
After the violence, a curfew was put back in place in the affected areas. This curfew had been relaxed before but had to be brought back because of the violence. Also, mobile data services were turned off again for five days. They had just been turned back on after being off for almost five months.
A senior police officer said, “The protests were carried out in several places in the valley. When they became violent, the security forces had to use a little force to control the crowd. But the crowd was really out of control. They attacked policemen, destroyed public things, so we had to use tear gas to make them stop.”
The police also said that the people in the crowd used things like iron pieces and stones to attack the security forces. The Manipur Police are very upset about this violence and have promised to take strong action against the people who caused it. They are also searching for stolen weapons and the people who did this.
People got very upset because of the disappearance and possible murder of two Meitei students. Photos of these two students were seen on social media. In one photo, the students were sitting in a jungle-like place with people holding guns behind them. In the next photo, the students were on the ground and not moving.
The families of these students had gone to the police many times to ask for help when their children went missing on July 6. But the police told them to wait until things got better. It was only when the photos became viral that the Manipur Government said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was handling the case, and they were still investigating.
The case has caused a lot of arguments. Meitei people in Imphal are saying that the police didn’t do enough to help the students and that they need to take action against the Kuki people. They want justice for the students’ families.
To investigate this case better, a team of six CBI officers, including a special director and a joint director, was sent to Manipur. But even with the CBI involved, the situation is still very tense, and it’s not clear how justice will be done in Manipur.
The violence in Imphal shows that there are deep problems in Manipur. The disappearance of two teenagers has made people very angry, and it led to protests and violence. The CBI is looking into the case, but tensions are still high, and it’s uncertain how things will get better in Manipur.