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MLAs under tight cordon as Manipur conflict rages on
Personnel from the CRPF and BSF have set up bunkers and placed barricades outside the homes of legislators, the officials said.
The Central Armed Paramilitary Forces have been roped in to provide security cover to at least 18 MLAs from the valley in Manipur, officials familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a move that came after the houses of legislators were targeted by violent protesters.
Personnel from the CRPF and BSF have set up bunkers and placed barricades outside the homes of legislators, the officials said. The paramilitary forces are in addition to the security already provided by Manipur police.
Senior police officers said that following last week’s violence, MLAs approached the police raising concern about threat to their and their family’s lives.
“Security has been provided to all MLAs but we have provided tighter security (in terms of number of personnel) to those on whom there are specific threats. The bunkers at the houses of the MLAs have been made by the forces based on their standard operation procedure. At some places Casper vans along with riot control personnel have also been posted,” a senior Manipur police officer said.
Legislators said that while the mob did not indulge in arson, they stole valuables, shoes, clothes, bags of rice and even utensils.
Read more: Manipur: 9 bodies of Jiribam victims sent back from Assam hospital amid tight security
In at least three places, including the homes of MLAs Biswajit Singh and L Susindro, and chief minister Biren Singh, security forces resorted to firing non-lethal ammunition in the air to disperse the crowd. One of the MLAs, S Kebi of Naoriya Pakhanglakpa, was rescued by security forces.
The attacks also prompted the government on November 16 to send in requisition for the army and Assam Rifles, who were brought to the city to restore normalcy. Till Friday, around 600 army and AR personnel were still deployed in Imphal.
One MLA, S Kebi Devi, alleged that she was abducted and taken to the CMs office because they were forcing her to resign. “They took me inside the CMs office for safety. While I was taken to the CM office by a mob of nearly a thousand people, a group of 20-30 men had stayed back. They broke the windowpanes and stole jewellery, cash, and shoes,” Devi said.
“There were many criminals, who took advantage of the protest and fled with the valuables of the MLAs. There was a wedding in the family of one MLA. The looters stole jewelery and money from the locker of his house,” senior officer, who asked not to be named, said.
MLA Radheshyam Yumnam, whose house was looted and set on fire, said, “There were looters present in the crowd of civilian protesters, who even looted our shoes and clothes. They burnt furniture, took whatever little money we had and even fled with the utensils of the house. The SP sent BSF personnel to my house for security but I told them that there was nothing to protect. There is no place left for the BSF personnel to sit.”
MLA Rajen Singh said that the mob fled with not just money but also his clothes and eight sacks of rice. “There was a crowd of around 200-300 that had gathered. They looted our clothes too and burnt the others. CRPF has been provided to me. I have written to the police and asked for more security.”
Angry mobs attacked the homes of legislators on November 16 after photos of three of the six abducted women and children surfaced on social media. The six, which included an 8-month-old baby, were abducted by alleged Kuki militants after a gunfight in Jiribam.
Kuldiep Singh, security advisor and head of the unified command in Manipur, said that 32 people have been arrested till date in connection with arson and vandalism at the houses of MLAs last week.
