Manipur affected by general strike seeking release of five village protection volunteers

Normal life in Manipur came to a halt from Monday midnight in response to the 48-hour general strike called by several civil society organisations demanding unconditional release of five village protection volunteers arrested on September 16 along with some sophisticated weapons. All vehicles were off the roads.

Normal life in Manipur came to a grinding halt from Monday midnight in response to the 48-hour general strike called by several civil society organisations demanding unconditional release of five village protection volunteers. The youth were arrested by police commandos on September 16 along with some sophisticated weapons.

Police recovered one INSAS rifle with four magazines and 78 rounds of ammunition, one self-loading rifle with three magazines and 50 live rounds, two .303 rifles with magazines and five rounds of ammunition each and one jeep in which they were reportedly travelling.

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The civil society organisations set a deadline, but the police refused to release the youth. Some organisations said that if the volunteers were not released after the general strike they would launch intensified campaigns.

All vehicles were off the roads, inter-district, inter-State buses and trucks did not operate. Shops, banks and business centres downed their shutters, and all educational institutes and government offices were closed. Examinations scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday were cancelled.

Police are patrolling all trouble prone areas to maintain law and order. Women activists are not allowing vehicular movement, and on Monday, several Army and Border Security Forces vehicles were blocked. After some hours, they had to return to their camps since the protesting women could not be dispersed. M. Memcha, a woman activist told The Hindu that the authority should set free these volunteers immediately and claimed that they were “protecting Meitei villagers from Kuki tribals”. Chief Minister N. Biren had said that many Kukis who had come from foreign  countries were cultivating poppy plants and that the government was firm on fighting these “narco-terrorists” to save the people.

Some women activists say that people have nobody to turn to for protecting them from these “terrorists who are armed with the most sophisticated weapons”.