Imphal: Union Minister of State for External Affairs RK Ranjan Singh’s house in Imphal town was vandalised by a mob which also tried to burn it down, officials said.
Security guards and firefighters managed to control arson attempts by the mob and save the Minister’s house from being gutted Thursday night, they said.
The development comes after the burning of two houses, and clashes between the Rapid Action Force of Manipur and a mob in the heart of Imphal town Thursday afternoon.
The mob which roamed the town late Thursday also clashed with security forces, officials said. Reacting to the developments, RK Ranjan Singh told PTI Video, “I am trying to bring peace and stop violence since May 3 (when ethnic clashes began in the state) … this is all a misunderstanding between two communities. The government has set up a peace committee, the process is on. Civil society leaders are sitting together.”
The Minister, who is currently in Kochi to attend a party event cancelled all programmes in Kerala to return home, stating, “There was an incident at my residence in Manipur last night.”
He said, “That (the house) is (from) my own hard-earned money. I am not corrupt. No one is corrupt in this regime. If this was something religious, then I am a Hindu. The attackers were Hindus. So, this is not religious. This is a mob.”
Singh said the government will talk to all communities and find a way out.
Sound of firing could be heard in Imphal East district till the early hours of Friday as security forces fired numerous rounds of tear gas shells and mock bombs to disperse angry locals protesting the killing of nine civilians Wednesday.
Two protesters and one Rapid Action Force personnel were injured during the confrontation. The RAF constable was hit by a stone on his head, said officials.
Protesters at Nongmeibung and Wangkhei blocked the main streets by piling up stones and construction materials and engaged in pitch battles with security forces, they said.
Condemning the killing of nine people in the Khamenlok area of Manipur, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said search and combing operations are on by security forces to nab the culprits.
Singh also asserted that his government will safeguard the unity and integrity of the state and will not do anything which is against the interest of the people of the state.
“Search and combing operations have been conducted at different places including Kurangpat and Yaingangpokpi by a team consisting of paramilitary forces and Manipur Police to nab the culprits and stringent actions would be taken against those involved in such heinous crime,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The death of nine people in a gun battle outside a Kuki village has further embittered relations and led to mob violence elsewhere including in the capital of the state Imphal, where clashes erupted on Thursday and two houses were torched.
The CM said search operations had been conducted in 41 villages of hill areas and 39 villages in adjoining valley areas.
At least nine people were killed and 10 injured when suspected miscreants attacked a village in the Khamenlok area of the state in the early hours of Wednesday.
More than 100 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki community people in Manipur that broke out a month ago.
The state has imposed a curfew on 11 districts and banned the internet in a bid to stop the spread of rumours in the state.
Clashes first broke out May 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals – Nagas and Kukis – constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.
PTI