BJP demands President's rule in Manipur

BJP on Thursday demanded that Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh be sacked and president's rule imposed in the state following the violent protests that have refused to subside since July 23 when two people were killed in an alleged fake gunbattle with police.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday demanded that Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh be sacked and president's rule imposed in the state following the violent protests that have refused to subside since July 23 when two people were killed in an alleged fake gunbattle with police.

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"The constitutional mechanism has failed completely (in the state)," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi.

"The BJP demands president's rule in the state, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh should be sacked and the commandos involved in the July 23 fake encounter booked under IPC 302 and arrested immediately," Javadekar said in a statement.

"Manipur is on the boil. The broad daylight fake encounter and killing of Sanjit Singh and Rabina Devi by police commandos in the presence of hundreds of onlookers has stirred the conscience of the state," Javadekar said.

He said the situation in the state was "serious and must be addressed immediately".

Sanjit Singh, 27, was killed in the July 23 shootout and passed of as a militant by police. Rabina Devi was also killed in the gunbattle.

People and rights group alleged that the shootout was staged by police.

Protests erupted after local media reproduced pictures carried by a New Delhi-based web portal depicting some police commandos surrounding and taking Sanjit into a pharmacy in Imphal and later bringing out his body.

Sanjit, a former member of the banned People's Liberation of Army, had surrendered to the government a few years back.