NEW DELHI, Sept 26: Within two days after restoration, the internet services were again suspended in Manipur and all schools closed after scores of students were injured in Imphal as police fired tear gas shells to disperse a crowd that had gathered to protest the killing of two Meitei students who were reported missing since July.
The photos of the bodies of the two friends surfaced on social media a day ago. Manipur government said the two students were “murdered.” The State Government ordered the closure of all schools in Manipur for the next two days in wake of the “prevailing law and order situation.” Mobile Internet services, which were restored only on Saturday after 143 days since the ethnic violence erupted in May, were suspended again for five days.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of students took to the streets to protest the killings. They tried to march towards Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s residence but were intercepted by security forces, who fired tear gas shells and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd. Several students were injured in the clash.
The two students whose deaths have provoked fresh tension in the state have been missing since early July – when the Meitei-Kuki conflict was at its peak. One photo released on social media showed them sitting in what seemed to be an unidentified armed group’s makeshift jungle camp. In July, the two were seen in CCTV footage but they could not be traced further at the time.
The two children – in a relationship with each other – were on a bike ride after a curfew (imposed because of the ethnic violence) was relaxed when they were believed to have been abducted. The case sparked outrage and many have questioned why the police is unable to find the killers. The Manipur government has called on people to show restraint and allow authorities to investigate the kidnapping and killing of the two students. Mr Singh, who has vowed “swift and decisive action” has handed the case over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. On Tuesday, the state police and central security forces conducted raids to trace the bodies of the two at Joujangtek in Bishnupur district, their last known location.
According to an August 2 report by Imphal police on “progress of investigation,” the two friends were last seen clicking selfies and photographs near a stone quarry at Laikha on July 6. The report said some Kuki village volunteers of Joupi village advised them to return home but the 20-year-old man went to a Kuki bunker looking for a banned substance. “In no less time, some armed Kuki militants in a four wheeler jeep/gypsy arrived and took them to an unknown place,” the report said.
Police said in its report that no eye-witnesses could be found during the investigation and they could not easily visit the suspected place of occurrence of crime “as the areas are mostly dominated by the Kuki militants.” The report, based on information provided by “sources” and examination of an unnamed police official, added that the State Investigating Agency was “handicapped in carrying out the investigation” as the case involved “armed Kuki Militants” adding that the probe should be handled by highly trained and resourceful investigating agency such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which can “access all areas of the country to book and prosecute offenders by appropriate law of the land.” The case was handed over to CBI the same month. Police has handed over the call detail records and other evidence collected so far to the CBI.
According to the report, part of an application filed by a Meitei group in Supreme Court, the 17-year-old girl’s father had initially registered a case of abduction and the 20-year-old deceased was named as a suspect. The case was filed after the girl did not return home from tuition classes.
However, the police report said the two are “suspected to have been kidnapped and murdered by the Kuki militants on the basis of ethnic cleansing.” The photos of the bodies of the two Meitei students surfaced on social media on Monday, a couple of days after mobile Internet services were restored in the State. In one of the photos, the two friends are seen sitting next to each other, with armed men in the background. In another photo, their bodies are seen lying near a rock.
On Tuesday, 24 legislators from Manipur submitted a memorandum to Home Minister Amit Shah’s office in Delhi that the CBI may be directed to take expeditious action so that the guilty are brought to book and justice is served at the earliest.
(Manas Dasgupta)