India: Manipur capital under curfew after violent riots

[Naveed Yaseen]

SHILLONG: Authorities in northeast India have imposed a curfew in Imphal, the capital of restive Manipur state, after violent protests over the killing of a former insurgent, police said on Wednesday. At least 40 people were hurt in clashes on Monday and Tuesday between police and protesters armed with catapults and sticks, a police spokesman said.

The protests erupted after an Indian news magazine published photographs showing police commandos pulling a former rebel into an Imphal pharmacy on July 23 and later dragging out his body. “This is a clear case of a murder in cold blood by police and Chief Minister Ibobi Singh must accept the moral responsibility and resign,” state opposition leader Radhabinod Koijam told reporters.

Police said the former rebel Chungkam Sanjit was killed in a gunbattle with troopers. On the day Sanjit died, the bullet-riddled body of a pregnant woman was also found in Imphal, prompting calls by activists for a judicial probe into her death. Police said the woman was killed in a crossfire when Sanjit fired at commandos. The Manipur chief minister, in a bid to calm the protests, suspended six police officials involved in the incident and agreed to a judicial probe. Imphal and Shillong, in nearby Meghalaya state, are the two most popular destinations for tourists visiting India’s seven northeastern states, also called the “Seven Sisters”. But the region has a troubled history of insurgencies dating back to India’s independence from British rule in 1947. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_44