23 held for vandalism & arson of MLAs’, mins’ homes in Manipur

Guwahati/Silchar: Manipur Police on Sunday said that 23 individuals, who had been involved in ransacking and arsoning of houses of MLAs and ministers on Saturday, have been arrested from Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur districts. They have also recovered one .32 pistol, seven rounds of SBBL and eight mobile phones. Eight persons were injured during the mob dispersal process.While there have been no reports of fresh violence on Sunday, tension continues to persist in several districts of the state.Police said that the Army and Assam Rifles had been deployed in Imphal and flag marches have been conducted, whilst CRPF-DG Anish Dayal Singh had reached Imphal on Sunday to assess the situation. Internet ban and curfew continues in several districts of Manipur.NPP MLA from Kakching Mayanglambam Rameshwar Singh was reportedly assaulted by a mob, while houses of over 10 BJP, JDU and Independent MLAs were vandalised or burnt down.Also, at least five churches, one school, a petrol pump and 14 homes, belonging to the Kuki-Zo community in Jiribam, have been burnt by Meitei miscreants on Saturday night, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) alleged.Meanwhile, in Assam, the state police on Sunday recovered the bodies of a woman and a minor from Barak river in Cachar, while the body of a man was found by Manipur Police in Jirbam on Saturday night, even as Manipur remained on the edge after violent protests and arsoning by people on Saturday, owing to the abduction and killing of six Meitei women and minors in Jirbam on Nov 11 allegedly by unidentified Kuki miscreants.Lakhipur police station in Cachar recovered the body of a girl child from the Barak at Singerband Part III. The body flowed downstream from Manipur, police said.Found inside a gunny bag, the locals spotted the body, caught in a bamboo root, alongside the river and alerted the police. The unidentified body was sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) for an autopsy.Earlier in the day, at about 8:30 am, a body of an unidentified woman, unclothed and decomposed, was recovered from the Barak at Chirighat, near the Banskandi police outpost, in Cachar. The body was found lodged against a sandbar in the river. Banskandi police subsequently retrieved the body and sent it to SMCH for autopsy. SP (Cachar) Numal Mahatta supervised the process.