IT News
Imphal, June 4:
Over 200 houses belonging to Meitei community were burned down by armed Kuki militants in Serou of Kakching district at around 9:45 p.m. yesterday.
Report reaching here said that a large number of armed Kuki militants came from Chingphai village site and entered Serou village by shooting various rounds of gun-shots. The militants then started setting fire to houses at Serou Mamang Leikai and Serou Mayai Leikai, including the house of Sugnu Assembly Constituency MLA K. Ranjit.
The report said that state police commandos started firing at Kuki militants shortly after they reached Serou Mamang Leikai in order to put an end to the burning of houses. BSF personnel also reinforced and assisted the police commando in fighting the armed miscreants, the report said and added that at around 2.30 am today the armed Kuki militants retreated however almost all houses of Serou Mamang Leikai have been turned into ashes by the time they left.
Speaking to the Imphal Times, a villager said that a combined team of Manipur Police Commandos, IRB, and 37 AR are residing inside the Practical High School of Serou Mamang Leikai. At around 9 p.m., one Casper bullet-proof vehicle of the Assam Rifles left the Practical High School and came back after 30 minutes. The burning of the house started just a few minutes after the AR Casper vehicle came back to the school, the villager said.
The State Police Commando repeatedly asked AR to utilize their bulletproof truck to reach the fire area when the burning of houses started, but AR allegedly refused.
The state commando has been urging the state administration to send more troops due to lack of manpower, however, no additional police are sent by the state authority at the time of filling this report.
On the other hand, the armed Kuki militants also attacked Security forces at Napat under Sugnu Police station. Security forces also retaliated and the gun battle reportedly lasted for hours.
Yesterday evening at around 4.30 pm, four MLAs, including three from the ruling BJP—U. Deben, M. Rameshwor, Y. Radheshyam—were detained at the Sugnu Bazar Mahila Congress building by irate locals. Ranjit was the lone non-BJP MLA among the four. The MLAs were led by Minister Y. Khemchand, who was apparently given permission to leave so that he could meet Chief Minister N. Biren Singh to request the relocation of the Assam Rifles camp from Sugnu.
The burning of the houses at Serou by armed Kuki militants and the attack to the Security Forces happened at a time when the three MLAs are staying at Sugnu under the duress of the irate locals.
