Opposition parties disrupt India's Parliament for 2nd day to protest ethnic violence in northeast
CTV
Deadly ethnic clashes in India's northeast rocked the country's Parliament for a second straight day Friday, where more than 130 people have been killed since early May.
Deadly ethnic clashes in India's northeast rocked the country's Parliament for a second straight day Friday, with the opposition blocking proceedings and demanding the sacking of the top elected official of Manipur state, where more than 130 people have been killed since early May.
The official, Biren Singh, belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party.
The opposition shouted slogans demanding that all other parliamentary business be postponed and that a debate be launched on the violence, starting with a statement by Modi.
On Thursday, Modi broke more than two months of public silence over the ethnic clashes, telling reporters that mob assaults on two women as they were paraded naked were unforgivable, but he did not refer directly to the larger violence.
The government refused the opposition demand that Modi participate in a debate, and presiding officer Rajendra Aggarwal adjourned the lower house of Parliament until Monday.
The near-civil war in Manipur was sparked when Christian Kukis protested a demand by the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a guaranteed share of government jobs.
The state government, meanwhile, announced the arrest of four suspects in the assaults on the two women. Rajiv Singh, the state's director-general of police, said police were carrying out raids to arrest other suspects.
