40 injured in Manipur as mob tries to remove Army barricade

Meitei group Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) had called a rally on September 6, 2023 to push an Army barricade in the buffer zone at Bishnupur-Churachandpur boundary further to the hill district of Churachandpur.

More than 40 people were injured in a stampede at Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Wednesday as security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse over 10,000 people who had converged to demand the removal of an Army barricade. A defence source said the stand-off continued through the day. Armed miscreants fired at the Central security forces and a mob threw stones at them. Three personnel of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a specialised anti-riot force, were injured in the incident. 

The crowd had gathered at two locations within a radius of 2 km at Phougakchao Ikhai and Kwakta in Bishnupur. 

The presence of the barricade, placed in a buffer zone at Bishnupur-Churachandpur boundary, has been protested by the Meitei groups. 

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an influential Meitei group, had asked the youth and locals to come out in large numbers on September 6, 2023, to push the barricade further to the hill district of Churachandpur. The group said the failure of the State and Central governments to remove the barricade by August 30 was the reason behind the protest march.

The COCOMI wants the barricade at Phougakchao Ikhai on the main highway connecting Imphal and Churachandpur be removed and placed at Torbung Wangma instead.

A senior government official said armed miscreants used automatic guns to fire at the security forces deployed in the buffer zone, some of them disguised as police personnel. 

Thousands marched towards the Army barricade even though Manipur administration imposed a day-long curfew in all the five districts of the Imphal valley on Wednesday.